Really?

I didn't look especially stellar today. A project kept me up late last night, and as I scraped the sand from my eyes I knew the day ahead would be long as well. Nothing terrible or overly stressful. Just long.

So getting ready this morning, I didn't have it in me to put forth any real effort. No makeup, no more than a perfunctory comb through the hair. My outfit, which I normally have a few minutes of fun each morning putting together, was an afterthought.

Clean and decent but not much else, I strapped on the laptop case, stuffed my notebooks, textbook and umbrella into another bag, and staggered down the street. A few steps down the road my sneakers started bothering my feet, and I started doing a shuffle thing meant to delay the onset of blisters. A block or so later I saw a woman crossing the street towards me. Black sweater, beautiful cognac suede skirt, black tights, black boots. Bouncy hair, bouncy step. Ugh. Just give me a goiter and an eyepatch already; let's get this over with.

A block later, I crossed paths with another one of my fellow JC residents. Baggy jeans, sweatshirt, baseball cap, swagger. "Hey sexy," he said.

Me? Really? Really? I know he said the same thing to every woman he passed that day, and I'm glad he didn't see it... but I had to smile.