20/20 in Montreal

While in Montreal, I needed to get some work completed and so before meeting a friend for dinner, I headed off to Café Dépôt at the corner of de la Montagne & Maisonneuve. As most of you are already aware, I have a tendency to completely zone out. If I’m concentrating on something, I could be staring at my mother and not recognize her. Despite this bizarre idiosyncrasy, my close friends have learned to love and ignore forgive me. Unfortunately, not the person who I encountered at the Café.

I was seated at the corner table by the window next to the Maisonneuve entrance. Every so often, I would look up and peek down the street in search of A who was on foot and coming from St-Denis to pick me up for yummy sushi (the best in Montreal can be found at Sakura).

Because I was writing, I’d taken my glasses off & naturally, my vision wasn’t 100%.

At one point I looked up for A and instead saw a really cute little girl who couldn’t have been over the age of 6. She was standing outside the window waiting for her mom who was a few feet away. I thought she was completely adorable dressed all in pink and in a tiny pair of jeans and matching jean jacket; her mom had even let her carry her own matching pink umbrella!

As I was smiling and staring at her thinking how charming she looked, she turned toward me. When we made eye contact, I gave her a smile and a wave that I save for children. I pointed at her little pink outfit and pink umbrella and with random expressions I also save for children, I indicated how much I liked what she was wearing (I’m friendly that way).

Her reaction caught me off guard because although I couldn't really see clearly, I could tell that she was angry. This 5 or 6 year old kid’s body language was indicative of the fact that she was quite immediately pissed off. I assumed she was upset about something having to do with her mom, until her mom walked over and looked equally angry…while looking in my direction. I looked behind me to see if anyone was being rude, but I was the only one in their line of vision (something which confused me further).

The little girl was pointing her finger at me when the mother grabbed her by the arm and started walking her away (where they stopped a couple of feet later waiting for the light at the intersection).

Please remember this all took place over the span of perhaps one minute and a half…

I honestly had no idea what the hell I’d done that had upset this little kid and her mom.

Until I decided to put on my glasses.

And found that the little 5 or 6 year old girl at whom I’d been making cutesy faces was in fact a 20-something year old little person. And chances are, that wasn’t her mom.

I was a little dumbfounded that she would be wearing so MUCH pink...when she's little (and just in case you missed it the first couple of times, even her f&%$ing umbrella was pink). And it's Easter, anyway...and why would she want to look like an Easter egg? I'm already going to hell, this'll just speed up that process.

But really...had she been wearing chain, black, silver and red, I would have probably still done the same stupid thing hesitated with the cutesy faces.