I love getting lost in public. Not in the geographic or directional sense – I’m actually pretty good with directions even without the help of “Natasha”, my fancy new navigation system. I’m talking about being individually lost. Disappearing into the crowd and becoming the fly on the wall we all wish we could be at times.
I remember my first trip to NYC very fondly. It’s the only major city I’ve ever traveled to solo. The more I think about it, it may be the only place I’ve ever traveled to on my own. I was 6 months into a new job in an industry I really knew nothing about yet and scheduled to give a presentation to a room full of industry giants in lieu of the President of my company. I was 23 years old, and I was terrified about the speech that loomed ahead of me. But I was utterly amazed at the pace of the city and found myself pleasantly lost in public for the first time.
I’ve been to other big cities - New Orleans in one of my favorite places - but we just don’t move like that in the South. The sidewalks were full of people minding their own business (that NEVER happens where I hail from!) at top speed. I was wearing a trench coat and large sunglasses. Some things never change. For the first time in my short life I was no one. The people around me didn’t know I had a presentation to fret over. They couldn’t have cared less. It was peaceful, and I felt completely at ease because no one expected anything of me.
This afternoon I worked remotely. I started with lunch at a café. The first order of business was a table for two – my laptop and me. Usually I would apply the rule of ‘seats-between’ when choosing my table, but it was 12:30 and the lunch rush was almost overwhelmingly busy. At the table to my left there was a single older gentleman. He was reading the day’s events on his iPad. Lost in public.
To my right there was a young man dining with two middle-aged ladies. They looked like they could’ve worked in a church office, but the young man was spewing profanities about the lack of young ladies who want to date him. Well, now. I wonder why… I put in my ear buds, turned on ‘Vitamin String Quartet Performs Coldplay’ and tuned him out while I finished up a few work assignments. And as I could hear him going on and on about himself over my iPod, I made a commitment to myself that I want to share with you.
I promise to work on my potty mouth this year.
Eventually I had to rejoin reality, but I learned something about myself today. Aren’t you proud??
And just in case you’re wondering, Stacie and I named my navigation system Natasha because the female voice sounds like a mad Russian when you think your directions are better than hers, thereby causing her to recalculate. We debated over Natasha or Nastia, and I just couldn’t bring myself to name her after a squeaky Olympic medalist.
