Glancing Blow

I was walking up Vine in Hollywood, which is not quite as romantic as it might sound, but it's not bad either. There are a number of great stores and restaurants around there, one of which is the Trader Joe's at which I bought the bottled water that I wrote about yesterday. I was leaving there when I was addressed by this guy. It is often not a good thing to engage in conversation with a stranger, but sometimes it can work out passably well.

I thought it was going well. He complimented my hair. This happens sometimes, and what I can't figure out is why it happens when I've taken proper care of my hair and also when I've just rolled out of bed and gone out. Maybe the hair is lower maintenance than I think. In any case,  my hair was well looked after on this occasion, and I was ready to believe that he honestly liked my hair and just wanted to say so. Maybe the first part was true.

The second part was not true, because he proceeded to lead into something about a survey. I wanted no part of that. I told him I had to go, which was not really true. I wanted to go, but I could have stayed if I felt some kind of obligation. I didn't, so I chose to be about as honest as the guy had been in the first place, which is to say not very. I got what I wanted out of it, which is more than the guy could say for his initial lack of candor.

The skirmish didn't leave me unscathed. I was not happy about getting drawn in by that guy for even a few seconds, which is all it amounted to. I like to think I'm fair at identifying the likes of survey-takers and passing them by, but this time I didn't manage that. I didn't see the guy until he was talking to me. If I had, I might have noticed him there, stationary and watching people walk down the sidewalk. That would have told me. As it was, I managed all right.