Eye Contacto

When I was in middle school I liked some boy.  I can't even remember who it was but what I do remember is this: whenever he and I made eye contact, which wasn't often, I'd say (scream) in my head: "EYE CONTACTO!"   I don't know why or what it means and I have no further points on this matter. I just wanted to put that memory down in writing.

Today was bust.   At precisely 8:05 pm I was supposed to meet with my neighbor to write some awesome guitar piece to accompany my lullaby.  However, at 8pm he sent me a text that started with, "you're going to kill me."   Thankfully, I didn't kill him.  I get to meet with him tonight and all is melodiously well.

Because doing this 31 things (one new thing a day) with a baby can be tricky,  I always try to have two things up my sleeve in case something fails.   Many plans have failed so far.   A few days ago I got an email from a friend telling me about a challenge she was given.  Her task was to make eye contact with every person she saw.  Not only that, she had to say "hello."   After she told me about the task, she admitted she didn't accept the challenge.  So I picked up her slack!  Always lookin' out for my friends :)

No- I'm exaggerating.  I didn't start my day trying to do the challenge my friend denied.  I imagined saying "hello, hello, hello, hello" over and over again and feeling like a freak.  However, I was at the grocery store and I passed by someone and noticed that they quickly put their head down.  They didn't want my hello.  They didn't want my EYE CONTACTO!    Or maybe...they aren't use to it?   So....I tried it on the next person.  No luck.  The next person.  No dice.   The next person was giving away free chocolate samples so no eye contacto from me on purpose...people..I can't just keep eating whatever I want, whenever I want.   I started to find this challenge really easy. 

I said hello to only a few people.  Most folks were in a rush, with a friend, on their phone, or purposely darting their eyes around avoiding my approaching gaze.  My friend....you know who you are... if you accepted this challenge, you'd find it wasn't awkward or hard at all. Nobody is looking at anybody these days.  It's kind of sad.  If I'm honest- most days- I'm that person with their head down.

I think I'm going to continue this challenge for the rest of the week.  My new goal is not just to say hello to everybody but to also engage in a conversation.  To make this goal harder, I have to do it without my son present.  Its easy to talk to people with him around.  Last week in the grocery store I talked to an old lady in front of the grapefruits.  By the time we were done with the conversation, I knew about her daughter living in Cali, her grandchildren and their Irish names, the baptism they'll have on the east coast.  I learned where her son in law is from and where they are going on vacation in a few weeks.   But Anders started the conversation by being so cute.   So if this is going to be  remotely challenging, Anders can't be there. 

And so- folks- Today my goal was to play the guitar with a friend (hard task considering I don't play the guitar.)  FAIL.   Second goal was to say hello to everybody.  FAIL...because nobody was looking at me.  I'll continue this goal for the rest of the week.   In turn, I learned that for me to carry this goal out, I had better keep my head up and pay attention the people around me.  I need to give them some EYE CONTACTO