Slice of Life #1

I woke up today feeling kind of glum, 'cause though I may be an upper-middle class college goer in the first world with a fully functional Wii, believe me when I say I got troubles. So I drive over the George St. Co-op to buy myself some Green & Black's chocolate ice cream so I can O.D. on it while I watch Netflix' copy of The Young Frankenstein for the first time, and when I get back and park in my designated spot outside my building, I see a little stray cat passing by. Now, I am what my friends call a "people watcher"- if I'm walking down the street, or picking up take-out, or standing on a checkout line, I like to observe people, note their mannerisms and quirks. I usually flit from subject to subject but sometimes I zone out and fixate, and if people know you're looking directly at them, it creeps them out. And you wouldn't think so, but if you tell them you're just doing it to learn more about the human condition, it only creeps them out more.

Apparently it creeps out cats, too. It's a shame because I was hoping I could at least observe animals with some degree of impunity, but no. The cat pretty much reacted in the exact same way a human would- he noticed me with a startled glance, kept walking for a moment, did the quick over-the-shoulder double-take and then hustled away in a hurried power-walk with a kind of "what the fuck was up with that guy?" look on his face. I'm a little impressed by this whole display- if you think about it (and I do), a double take is really a pretty psychologically complex behavior. I'm guessing.

Anyway, I'm normally okay with the fact that most people have a firmer grasp of etiquette than me and that I weird out people occasionally by just doing what I normally do, but I was hoping cats were less anal-retentive about that kind of thing. Apparently they know more about the nuances of social behavior than I do, which is frankly a bit of a slap in the face to accept. I was a little tempted to explain myself to him, but even if I could get over the language barrier issue, one of the few things creepier than telling people you're observing them for academic reasons is to say you're staring at them 'cause they're adorable.

In any case, I'm just a little more convinced than before that opposable thumbs are all that's keeping them from being our evil overlords.