March 24, 2009

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  Women check each other out.  Why?

   

  I notice other women, because they have something I admire.

   

  Jane works in my company.  She is very pretty.  She looks very young.  Judge from her skin and her shape one may think she is in her thirty.  However if she misses an appointment with her hair stylist some of her gray hair will appear like being highlighted.  She is well dressed, always in business attires: dark color pant suits or skirt suits.  Even when she dresses down for Friday or goes to the field, she still looks very proper.  Simple but elegant, feminine but not frilly.  Her facial features are delicate.  She looks like Meg Ryan in Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve got mail.  She looks like the models in Talbots catalogue.  She works for Planning or Finance I am not sure.  She says hi back when I say hello to her.  I always secretly look for her in company function to see what she wears.  Her appearance is very eye pleasing. 

   

  A woman often checks another woman out, but not always with admiration.  The person to be checked out may resemble to someone the checker does not like or she may bring back an unpleasant memory, or she carries an attitude, or the checker sees what she dislikes about herself.  So many reasons I can only guess.

   

  There is an Asian woman who takes the same train with me.  She is very short, even shorter than I am.  When she sits on the bench in the waiting room her feet do not touch the ground.  She swings her legs like a little girl often does.  She makes up heavily.  Her brows are tattoed two dark brown arches, too prominent on her face the arches make her look mean.  Her skin is medium dark.   Two deep creases like a pair of parentheses cup around her bright red lips.  She likes strong color and loud patterns.  She is not heavy but her limbs are chunky.  Her wedged shoes makes her legs seem thicker and shorter.

   

  She watches me and I watch her.  I can tell she does not like me.  I once attempted to make a small talk but she slighted me.  After that I ignore her the same way she has ignored me.  Once I saw her selling handmade crafts in an art fair with her Caucasian male companion, I browsed the art fair without acknowledging her. I do not know why she dislikes me.  Although I am quiet I do talk to people from time to time, saying hello and talking about weather.  Sometimes looking at her from distance I think she will look nicer if her make up is not too heavy. 

   

  She always leaves the waiting room a few minutes prior the train time to stand on the platform.  Doing that can help her board the train faster although there is no need to fight for a seat because there are plenty of seats for everyone.  I, on the other hand, sleepily wait inside until the train come.  Once I stood next to her.  The train came and the man in front of me hopped on first.  I followed him then she pushed ahead of me.  Perhaps she felt entitled to board ahead of me because she waited there longer.  If you ride the train you will know the train does not always stop at the same place.  So even someone comes to the platform later but stand near the yellow line in different location may get to board the train earlier if she is near the door.

   

  Last week, the train stopped and its door was opened right in front of me.  She was pushed me from behind, got on first and glared at me.  I was about to say excuse me but the hostility in her face made me think she might stretch her claws right into my face.  The imagination of two short Asian women holding each other hair and rolling on the ground was not very civil so I being a gracious loser said nothing and let her win.  I was a little upset and that incident bothered me a whole day.  She glared at me as if she showed her fangs.

   

  This morning was very cold and the wind was burning. The train came into the station much faster than normal.  Perhaps the driver was not familiar with this platform.  By the time the train was able to stop it went farther than normal.  This morning I stood a little farther than the normal crowd.  The door popped open in front of me.  Life has a lot of unexpected moments.  Sometimes a careful plan did not give the planner the expected result.  Sometimes people get lucky like being able to steal a parking lot while other people waited.  As I boarded the train I thought of her being mad at me for being able getting on the train before she.  Silly like a bad kid, I felt as if I was winning a stupid game.  I thought of her glare and fangs.  I wanted to tell her: “Lady, you look like a WOLF!”

   

  • 8:23 pm
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