2000-05-10
Tonight I drove to the grocery store. On the way home it was 85 degrees -- my car has a thermometer on the dash -- and perfect out. I can think of few things I love more than driving at night with all the windows down. The weather lately has been very usual, high 80s and 90s but low humidity. This is heaven to me.
Today at work I started working on a project with this guy Drake. There's something really weird about my work environment, it's very unconducive to friendliness. On several occasions I've needed for work reasons to initiate a conversation with one of my co-workers; they've been unfailingly pleasant and cooperative. But seeing all these people in the hallways they seem almost robotic, as I'm sure I do, too.
Anyway, this guy Drake looks to me like an axe murderer. In fact, one day I asked a woman at work, "Does Drake look like an axe murderer to you?" She nodded. "Why is that?" I asked. "Beady eyes," she said, without missing a beat. So, of course, now that I'm working with him he turns out to be perfectly cool and easy to work with.
I make snap judgments all the time and frequently see them proven wrong. You'd think that would lead me to stop making them but so far it doesn't seem to work that way.
It just occurred to me that this current situation, where people turn out to be better than I'd thought, is probably preferable to the reverse: where people seem good and then turn out to be creeps.
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