I have had to deal, recently, with a person that drives me bonkers, makes me question my sanity, and truly makes me wonder what planet they came from.
Because I’m pretty sure it isn’t from here!
In one instance when I was talking to the person, I suddenly had the realization that I had on “the face”.
“The face” that I have seen on my father whenever he has determined that he is dealing with someone who has stepped off on the “stupid floor”.
Oh, “THAT FACE”!
It is funny, as I recognized that face as a young girl when I saw my father speaking to people who clearly weren’t understanding him – and not due to a language barrier. I was always very thankful I was not the recipient of that face.
And, then, I became a teenager. . .and suddenly I was the recipient of that face. You know, when I did something stupid and here I was trying to explain it all rational to him. . . He never bought it, and that’s what made him the smart one, and me the one deserving the stupid face.
I was discussing this over dinner tonight — I mean, telling how I thought I had this “face” on whilst I was talking to this particular person, and where I got this face from.
Tyler started laughing, “Oh! I’ve seen that face on Opa!” “It was when I was doing math, and he was checking me. He kept asking where I got my answer, and I kept saying 4+7=11. It wasn’t till much later that I realized he wanted to know where I came up with the four and the seven.”
That, then, reminded me of this:
When I was a youngster we had to do a science project for school. I did mine on cats, and I did quite a fair amount of work on it, seeing as I was trying to convince my parents at the time that I was deserving of a cat for a pet.
Well, my project did well enough that I went to the “next level” (county maybe?). I remember being very nervous as there were so many kids in the gym where we had to set up our projects. I had my project all set up behind me just waiting for the judges to come around so I could dash out of there.
Well, the judges finally made it, and they looked at me and smiled. And then they asked, “What’s your project on?”
My response was, “Cats.”
There was a pause, and then another judge asked me, “So, what is your project on?”
This was not what I was expecting, so there was a short silence while I gathered my wits and remembered that the teacher was always telling us to speak up.
“Cats!”
The judges were a bit surprised by this, I could tell. So far, so good. . .
The third judge then looked at me intently and asked, “What is your project on?”
Well!
I mean, really!
I turned around and saw that my poster was still standing behind me, and it still had written upon it in big, bold, black 3-inch stenciled letters C-A-T-S.
So, I took a deep breath; I held out my arm in a perfect Vanna White pose, and I said,
“CATS!”
There was a fourth judge in the group, and he said,
“Shall we move on?”
