Running with my blinders on

Yesterday, I took my daughter to the store to get her school supplies. When I was walking through the store entrance to get a cart, my daughter grabbed my arm and, when she had my attention, she said/signed a name.

I turned and saw my neighbor smiling and waving at me. I was like, “Oh! Hi!”

Then I was like, D’oh! Apparently, I’d walked right past my neighbor without even seeing him! Let alone recognizing him.

Whoops.

I have done that sometimes. When I’ve had Jen with me, she’d grab me by the arm whenever our neighbors were around and I didn’t see them or it’d take me a while to REALIZE that, hello, someone was THERE!

I’d either be lost in storyland, distracted by something or I’d have my mind set on one thing and not realize someone was there.

I remember when I was taking an art class in college. One day, the class was OUTSIDE of the classroom, just sitting there having an “outside day.” And I walked right past them ... and into an empty classroom. DUH! (Heh, maybe they thought I wanted to attend class INSIDE the classroom today, professor be darned!)

I have heard that some people have a certain “disorder” or some such where they can’t recognize people, but this is not my case. I just fail to notice people. If I know someone well, I WILL recognize them! (One day, I saw my friend at the store and I kinda stood off to the side waiting for him to see me. So, yes, I RECOGNIZED my friend! No troubles there.) It just has to be someone I know well. Then I recognize them. Ya know, I have seen another former neighbor at the store and walked over to give him a hug then catch up on old times. (You can’t be my neighbor and not have stuff happenin’!) 

But aside from that, I just don’t notice people as much as I should. I mean, my neighbor was Right. There! And I just moseyed on past him. Didn’t say “hi.” Didn’t give him “wazzup!” Just walked on by.

I get bugged about being so watchful over who and what shows up on my street, yet I walk right on by the people I know! Craziness. And I know, that’s a bad thing for a deaf person. I have been told many times to stay aware of my surroundings because I can’t hear what’s going on around me (once had a friend pull me out of the path of an oncoming car, and even stood in front of an oncoming trolley!). I KNOW I have to be aware of things, and aware of people.

It’s just that sometimes … I’m not. And I am glad that there are people who understand that was just my “duh moment” and shrug the whole thing off. I was NOT ignoring them. I was NOT avoiding them. That was just me running with my blinders on. Thank you to those people who have not taken it personally.