When a simple "nice to meet you" fails.
*November 30, 2007
Scene: 9 a.m. on a Friday morning.
A dozen or so people enter an elevator together. The elevator doors close, and all people stand in silence, being transported from the first floor to the 26th, which takes a good forty seconds.
As a general rule, no one talks during this silence. Even if your best friend is there with you, you do not talk on the elevator when other people are around. I didn't make these rules up; I just abide by them. And I've never understood the purpose behind them until today.
A guy with dark spiky hair and black Weezer glasses glances over at me, and I smile.
He keeps staring.
Him: "Are you from Tulsa?"
Me: "Um. Yeah, I am."
Him: "And did you work at Smoothie King?"
Me: "I did!"
Him: "I used to go in, like, every day. I saw you a few weeks ago in the elevator, and it took me a while to figure out where I knew you from."
Me: "Ah. Well, now you know."
By this time, my face is burning red and all the people sharing the elevator with us are smirking to themselves. I foresee a very awkward situation, indeed, if our moment of recognition is followed by silence. I am forced to keep the conversation going.
Me: "So. What kind did you used to get?"
Him: "Light and fluffy."
Me: "Ah. Number one."
Him: "Yep."
Smoothie King Boy must've realized the same thing I did, so he presses on.
Him: "So. How long ago was that, like, ten years?"
Me: "I started working there in 1999."
Him: "Cool."
I pause a second and the silence rings in my ears. Must keep going. Almost there.
Me: "Are you from Tulsa?"
Him: "Yeah."
Me: "Where'd you go to school?"
Him: "Oh, I didn't grow up there. Just lived there after college."
Me: "Oh."
Weird Elevator Voice: "Floor 29."
Me: "Well. See ya."
Him: "See ya."
And I race off the elevator, little wheels for legs.
End scene.
Wow! What a coincidence you blogged about that a few days ago. Or was it all planned!
That is a random encounter. How interesting. He actually spent time thinking about it and tried to put a face to a place.
Neat.
~Jef
- Posted by Edge | November 30, 2007 6:27 PM
Wow. AWKWARD.
- Posted by The Underpaid Princess | November 30, 2007 11:59 PM
Hahahaha, I love it! You're hilarious Spring!
- Posted by Anonymous | December 2, 2007 6:27 PM
See, I get the rule about not striking up conversations with strangers in elevators, but the one that gets me is not talking to the people you know while in an elevator. Anytime my old roommate and I would leave for work at the same time and catch the elevator down, we would chirp like canaries until we got in the elevators and then SILENCE.
Which of course, would lead to us giggling. But never talking. And if there is anything more awkward than a stranger starting a conversation with you in an elevator, it's trying to suppress giggling for no reason in an elevator while people give you a look so dirty you still don't feel clean when you think about it.
- Posted by brandy | December 2, 2007 10:24 PM
So awkward! I hate elevator conversations! If I didn't work on the 16th floor, I would take the stairs just to avoid awkwardness. My personal elevator pet peeve is when the people crowd you- the entire elevator is empty but they INSIST on standing so close to you that you could identify what type of shampoo they use. And don't even get me started on "Captivate" the 1984-esque TV that they have in our elevator. All the drones stare straight ahead and read whatever crap they are trying to brainwash us into believing. I always expect O'Brian's face to pop up and arrest me for Thoughtcrime.
- Posted by Joni | December 3, 2007 8:41 AM