21 November 2011

The world around me goes unnoticed


I can be unobservant. This probably isn’t something any of you are going to debate, even half-heartedly. I like to think that I’m too busy thinking important thoughts to notice the details of the world around me. In reality, I do live in my head, but my thoughts aren’t all that lofty or important. This trait of mine leads to awkward conversations with people that follow along the lines of:

Me: [pointing to a picture on the wall] I really like that picture, is it new?
Sister-in-Law: No.
Me: Has it been there a while?
SiL: Yes
Me: Was it there three years ago when I lived here for 9 months?
SiL: Yes.

To date, the biggest thing I didn’t notice was a window at work. One day I was walking through this mostly glass walkway and there was one particular window that I didn’t remember ever seeing before. Obviously, it had been there the whole 1.5 years I’d been taking that walkway on a daily basis – I just never noticed.

Well, I broke my record with an even bigger thing I’d never noticed before. The other day I noticed a school for the first time. It’s clearly visible from a highway I take at least twice a week, near an exit I take occasionally. An entire school that somehow escaped my notice.  At this rate, in about 10 years I’ll be having conversations like this:

Me: [pointing] What’s that?
Other person: (alarmed stare)
Me: Is that new?
OP: No.
Me: What is it?
OP: It’s a door. It’s your front door.
Me: Has it always been there?

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