I’m not a social sort. I avoid eye contact and fully embrace the concept of ‘aloof.’ Even though it makes me look like a total snot, I really don’t care, because I’m just not good with people and that way interaction is greatly limited.  Which I like.

I was in the front yard tonight, playing fetch with Duke. A cute preppy couple with a large dog and a baby stroller were near by and Duke went to say hello. I went after Duke. The dogs were sniffing and saying hello, so I smiled and told them my name and introduced Duke. Like a normal person.

Their large dog was also off-leash, but that’s okay around here and there was no problem. No dog drama. No people drama. All was well. The dogs were not near the baby at all, as the mom had left the stroller and the baby quite a ways away in order to help with all the dog meet and greet activity.

I told Duke to come, and he started to, then went back for more sniffing. Again. All was calm. The dogs were fiiiine. No growling. No glaring. No ‘look I’m aloof, don’t talk to me’ vibe or anything. The nice preppy guy was bent over at the waist, holding on to his dog and trying to pull apart the dogs. Then he looked up at me – and because of the bending over and seriously overreacting to nothing body position – he was RIGHT in my face, and he yelled.  In my face. Inches away.

I’m not good with that. I didn’t see that coming. There was absolutely nothing going on with the mom, the baby, the dogs, or anything that indicated he needed to let loose and yell at anyone. What is it about a guy with a deep voice who yells right at you and suddenly you’re a total girl-wuss? Is it just me? Instantly I felt shaky. And I hate that feeling. Maybe he had a reason that I just can’t think of that would totally make that particular tone more  understandable. Or something.

I so dislike social interactions anyway, but ones like that really deepen my appreciation for the hermit lifestyle. I coulda done it, too, but it didn’t occur to me to be totally reclusive until after I’d already had a lot of kids and I think it’s too late now. (Not that I regret the kids.) It’s just probably hard to be a reclusive-ish hermit mom when everyone has to go to school and baseball practice all the time. So that’s out.

Mr. Not So Nice But Still Preppy had yelled, “GRAB YOUR DOG. JUST TAKE HIM. GRAB HIM NOW.”

So I took Duke’s collar and glanced at the mom, who was trying to calm down the baby who had started screaming when the dad yelled.  I didn’t say anything, and just held onto Duke’s collar as we crossed the street and went back to the house. When we got Duke, he was already a highly trained hunting dog – and I knew he wouldn’t run away if I let go of his collar, but I didn’t anyway. I just  didn’t want that guy to yell at me again if he happened to see me let go.

I came inside and sat on the couch and tears rolled down my cheeks. (total girl-wuss.) Mike asked me what was wrong and I told him some guy yelled at me. He asked a few more questions, got a few more answers. He looked completely freaked out and as if he had no idea what to do with me. He kissed me on the forehead and went out to the backyard. And every thirty minutes or so he comes and asks me if he can get me anything. As if I have cholera.

I don’t normally fall apart over nothing. (Or, if I do, not in front of him.) The last time he came in and asked me if I needed anything I asked if I had really freaked him out. (Although, duh. Yes I had, and I knew that, but I was trying to get him to talk because he clearly needed to.) “Well. Yeah. You came in crying and I kept asking if you were okay and you’d just say, ‘I’m fine,’ even though you weren’t acting like you were fine.”

Men.

And I AM fine. Some guy yelled at me. This should not be a big deal. It just scared me because it was unexpected and unnecessary and made me dislike the ideas of neighbors and neighborhoods even more than I already do. Okay, it made me dislike interacting with all of humanity. But I was almost there already, so whatev.

I’m fine.

(And that makes perfect sense to me.)

Be Sociable, Share!

•