Empathic Perturbation

Have you ever looked at someone, be it a stranger or someone close? Stared at their momentary expression and completely were at a loss of what they were feeling?

I am not bringing up just any run of the mill resting b!+¢# face. Or commonplace goof mug. I’m talking about that sort of expression that blurs the line between a couple, or even three, or four different faces most everybody gives; when feeling a very defined emotion.

You have your sad frowning faces, happy grinning faces, angry scrunching faces, pleasure relaxing faces, anxious tensing faces, etc… (crap, I could write about two long paragraphs on just about all the varieties of faces most of us could immeadietly identify.)

The whole reason I bring this up is because yesterday, I walked into work and saw a coworker staring into space and I couldn’t tell if she was very pissed, or very happy. She had a slight grin but her eyes and eyebrows were squeezed into a wide hyper focused ‘V’ formation of intensity. Her posture was no help. She was just relaxing with one hand loosely resting on top of a counter, and the other hand hanging from her thumb slipped into her pants pocket. She wasn’t even looking at anything but a bare wall not 15 feet away. She didn’t even see me paused at the office entrance staring at her in bewilderment. I didn’t go in. I just turned around and went to the bathroom to wash my hands. It kinda freaked me out. When I did come back she was her normal self and I let that moment I witnessed just fade away.

However, you could probably tell that it faded back into my thoughts. I honestly am kicking myself now for not bringing it up while at work. The more I think about that expression she had, the more possible theories come to my mind. Was she plotting some evil revenge? Was she remembering some tragic memory that ended up to be a triumphant close call? Was she going to be doing something after work that she had been wanting to do for a very long time? Did she just squeeze a silent fart out her @$$ and realize that it had no smell? The pondering possibilities keep flooding my brain. I can’t bring it up at work tomorrow. How would that even go? I would seem like a creepy crazy stalker person for asking about that private moment two days ago. Let alone the fact that I haven’t said anything for that amount of time. Heck, Sweden (the country) switched three hundred sixty thousand streets from left to right in just one day (10 minutes to be exact). Yeah, they used to drive on the left hand side of the road before 1967. But at 4:50am, within 10 minutes, the whole country was driving on the right side. ALL AT ONCE! I could have asked a question that took less than two seconds!

I also have the suspicion that, crap like this, is not that common with most people. Meaning, I don’t think other people fixate on this sort of confusion for this long. Do they?

I can assume that if someone were to be looking at me like that, I (like most people) would immediately inquire what that look was all about. Or, most people would have inquired about the expression after walking into the room. Not turn away and find something else to do, just to avoid any kind of awkward or uncomfortable conversation. Would they?

This right here is why I really suck at ‘human-ing’. I would rather write about torturing myself than actually communicate properly with other human beings. On the flip side of that, I also do the opposite. I randomly start flapping my gums about thoughts to anybody that should probably be kept to myself. Who in their right mind wants to listen to an observation about how eating Laffy Taffy makes one sound like they are giving a sloppy wax job to a chrome platted charcuterie board covered in suction cups. It’s maddening! The sound it makes that is. Not talking about the observation. Well, maybe that too. I have no idea. I’m just guessing.

…

Maybe her mini lady hairs are twitchy from the sticky thigh wings and she just found the right boogie hip move to scratch the itch?

This is going to haunt me for weeks.