It's a difference in context

It occurred to me the other day while shopping at Best Buy that I should avoid smiling and saying hello to children while I am not at work.

Because, you see, at work, saying hello to children that are tagging along with their parents is like saying, "I'm really not even trying to sell you something, but if you bought something, gee, that'd be nice."

But a bearded man in his early 20s (but I do get confused for being in the 25-30 bracket), wearing shorts and a t-shirt, perusing the DVD section for anything that happens to be on sale, saying hello to random children seems suspect.

I caught myself waving childishly at an 8 year old when I thought, "If this little boy turns up missing, they're going to review the security tapes at this store and haul my ass in first."

So I just plain walked away and didn't look at anyone else in the store. I thought about how having children makes it okay to say hello to random children, but having none at all eradicates any possibility of being polite without the parent looking at you like you're someone they saw on that show where they trick pedophiles into showing up to a rendezvous, Arbor Mist and condoms in hand, only to find an upset looking reporter and a bored looking camera crew.

Real news

Hello, sorry to break the tradition of the last three or four posts, but I actually had something to say. You see, something very good happened to me the other day.

I got engaged.

A woman actually agreed that spending the rest of her live probably wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Amy, seen here, has agreed to take part in this on Wednesday. I made dinner (Baked, breaded chicken, lemony alfredo sauce served over asiago tortellini) while she took a nap after coming home from dinner, and had it ready when she woke up. We sat down, and before serving dinner, I got down on my knee and proposed. She said something along the lines of "I'll have to think about this." Which is one of the reasons I want to marry her.

Anyway, she said yes and I took away the wine glasses and replaced them with champagne flutes, then took the bottle I hid in the back of the fridge out and opened it. "We have to finish this tonight, you know. Once it sits out too long, you can't drink it anymore."

And that we did.