I think I sometimes become invisible

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Yesterday I set out to do several different chores. I left early with a song in my heart and a smile on my face.

I have some problems with my back and a friend told me to try a waterbed, he said it would help. So I decided to go buy one. I have some original animation cels that needed to be framed, so I would go to the picture framing place. I also needed my oil changed.

I first stopped at the bed outlet. I went and stood in the waterbed section waiting for someone to help me. I even tried the beds. I rolled around on one of them.

Now, you don’t know me, so you can’t know that I am a rather large man. Both tall and wide. I am muscular from my days of weightlifting in college and round from my days of sitting behind a desk. It is hard to miss me.

After 10 minutes of waiting in a store that was practically empty, I decided that they didn’t need my business and left.

I went to the picture framers next. There was a woman at the counter and several workers milling about the store. The woman at the counter had another customer. I waited patiently, but the other customer was taking a lot of time. I looked around, the other workers seemed to not notice me. I decided to browse the book store and come back. A half hour later, the woman behind the counter was working with another customer. The rest of the people still seemed to be unable to see me. That’s when it occured to me: I must be invisible. I went out into the mall and tapped some guy on the shoulder. “Can you see me?” I asked in a friendly manner. He just stared at me, his eyes big and round (as if my voice came from no where.) He quickly walked away. AH HA! I knew that I was invisible.

I left and went to have my oil changed. I figure that all the metal from my car negated the invisibility field, 'cause they helped me right away. (hooray!) I then went to another branch of the bed store.

I stopped one of the workers and said “I’m here to buy a water bed.” Just like that. Right from the beginning she could tell that she had a sale. All that she had to do was help me. She answered one or two of my questions, but then a couple came up to her and asked her a question. She stopped helping me and wandered off to help them. I figure at that time, I slipped into invisibility mode and she musta forgotten that I was there. I left.

And lastly, as I was walking to my car, a kid on a skateboard crashed right into me. He apologized and claimed that he didn’t see me. Now, as I said, I’m a large man, both tall and wide. He had to be able to see me. Or…

I think that sometimes I become invisible.

2

Have you ever been bitten by a suspicious-looking insect? As a child, did you play near power stations? Do you own a cloak?

3

No insects, no cloak. There are some rather big power stations not too far from here. Do you think I have the basis of a good law suit? But no, how would I get anyone to notice me at the lawyer’s office?

4

You’d have to paint yourself. Paint yourself blue all over, and you will nolonger be invisible. Unless they have blue wallpaper. That could be tricky. Maybe you could paint a pattern. Paint yourself paisley. Walk into the lawyer’s office and say

“Hello! I wish to file a lawsuit.”

and they will all say

“Hey look! A paisley man.”

You’d be very noticeable then. But maybe they would be too busy being astonished by your paisleyness to listen to your request. So you would have to shout quite loud. Take a megaphone. Walk into the lawyer’s office, brandishing your megaphone and start shouting

“HELLO. I AM INVISIBLE”

That would work.

5

True invisibility is difficult. You might just have an intermittent Somebody Else’s Problem field. SEP fields even at low level are very effective against retail clerks and tech support.

6

I think you’re invisible right now.

Right this minute!

'Cause, stare as I might at my monitor screen, I can’t see you! :eek:
Amazing, huh? :smiley:

7

Did someone say something?:smiley:

8

Sometimes I think I’m invisible, too. Once in college I went to where this girl I was smitten with usually studied. After a few minutes of sitting there, sure enough, here she comes. She sits about three seats away from me, reading her psychology book for at least twenty minutes, then gets up and leaves. She never saw me even though I was right there! We were the only two people in that part of the library!

Hehehe, now where is that jewelry store…

9

Hmmmm. An SEP field would explain a lot.

Francesca, yours is an excellent plan! Except for the paisley. A man my size would seem just plain crazy in paisley. I look very excellent in blue though.

Oddly, I think that it happened again tonight. I was at a convenience store and I had already paid for my diet soda and my gas (petrol for the British amoung us) and as I tried to leave there was a man standing in the doorway. I approached him, stepped aside, and patiently waited for him to come in (or go back out, I didn’t really care either way.) He didn’t seem to be aware that I was there, 'cause he just kept standing there. Finally I said, in my most friendly voice “Pardon me, I was hoping to use that space as an exit.” Again, as had happened in the mall, the man turned and stared at me, as if my voice was coming from nowhere. He did however, step aside and I was able to leave.

I’m starting to worry about this. What if people don’t see me when I go back to work? Will I still get paid?

10

They were talking about this about two nights ago on Art Bell.

Here’s a link to the woman he was interviewing, just for fun:

http://members.aol.com/Rapunz1/DH_index.html

I consider myself fairly knowledgable in the fields of weird things that people come up with (and the allegedly paranormal), but that one was new to me.

11

THAT’S TOO FUNNY! Thanks for sharing that with me, I am very entertained.:smiley:

12

My pleasure. <hat tipping smiley>

13

Just think of the money you can save on clothing Khadaji! If no one can see you, you don’t have to get dressed.

14

Same thing happened to me at a Home Depot a few days ago. Went to buy a new front door, found one I liked but it was on the second level of the large storage racks used by HD. Nearby was a customer service button, hit it, and a voice over the PA system says “customer service on aisle 17 please”. After 5 minutes, I hit the button again. Almost immediatly it see a HD employee look down the aisle then he turned around and left. Maybe he is going to get help. Nope. I hit the button again. No response. I go off to find someone. There is an employee behind a counter in the nearby flooring section. I wait while he is talking to a couple. The couple turns and leaves and the employee leaves in the other direction. He looked right at me, must not have seen me though.
I go back to the door aisle. Every 30 seconds I hit the button. Every 30 seconds a voice calls for customer service on aisle 17. After 10 minutes (and 20 calls for customer service) I go to the front of the store to the customer service desk.

I nice gal named Brenda does see me. She asks what I need. I tell her I want to buy a door but no one will help me. She asks if I tried the customer service button. I tell her I have been pressing it for the last 20 minutes with no response. I asked her if she heard all the calls for customer service on aisle 17. She tells me that the guys in the back must think a kid it playing with the button. I tell her how would they know, only one person even took the time to look down the aisle and he left. She get on the PA and calls for a Mike to go to doors for customer service. I go back to aisle 17. No Mike. I check aisle 16, it has screen doors, maybe Mike is there. Nope.

WTF is a person suppose to do? It is only 8 in the morning, there are as many employees as customers in the store and I really want this door. Normally a $150 steel door marked down to $60. It is even marked as an in store special, may not be available at any of the other Home Depot’s in the area. At the back of aisle 17 there is a phone mounted on a post. Just above the phone is a small sign that says press *04 for the store PA. I pick up the phone, dial *04, and say “What does a person have to do to get some help in this place? I have been waiting for over half an hour for a door. Does anyone want to sell me a door. I will pay cash too. Hello, hello, anybody hear me? Could I please get some help on aisle 17?”

Within seconds, 7 HD employees are on aisle 17. I show them the door I want and where it is located on the second shelf. Then the manager shows up and asks who made that announcement. I tell the manager my horror story about aisle 17. He is not amused. He grills a couple of the employees as to why they did not help me the first time I pressed the button. They both mumble some lame excuses. I notice one is Mike. I tell the manager that Brenda called for Mike earlier but he never came. Mike is told to report to the managers office after he helps me take the door to my truck. Plus, the door will be sold at cost to me. Mike rolled my door to the front, the manager opened a register just to get me through without waiting in line, and Mike does not seem real happy about the whole experience. After the door is loaded in my truck, Mike tells me he will probably be fired, he is on probation for screwing off at work. Should I feel sorry? I don’t, what was suppose to be 15 minute trip to the hardware store has already taken almost an hour. The door ended up costing me only $51 with tax, I guess you could say it was worth the wait.

15

I’ve experienced much the same thing, but I have a more plausible theory, IMHO.

WE are not invisible — THEY are blind! I think there must be something in the airconditioning systems. Anything further than 12 inches disappears into a fog.

Now, when they don’t see me, I get RIGHT INTO THEIR FACES, and say loudly, “HELLO, CAN YOU SEE ME?”.

It works 80% of the time.

16

I sometimes have the same problem…even to the extent that automatic doors don’t see me. I jump up and down, wave my arms, and end up following someone else out the door. :frowning:

17

LOL. Arwen, so far, you win. If even the automatic doors are ignoring you, you MUST be invisible. I confess that the automatic doors in my area always treat me with courtesy and respect.

18

I find that a little bit of anger seems to burn off the invisibility. I have spent a lifetime as a quiet, non-attention-grabbing person, and as a result have been invisible quite often myself. It pisses me off to be treated like I’m invisible, so I get a little mad about it, and lo and behold, I’m visible again! Hallelujah!

19

There’s actually a pretty cool story with this premise. It’s called The Ignored, written by Bentley Little.

As soon as I saw the OP, this book popped into my mind.

Sheri

20

I wrote a short column at Intrepid Media (plug plug) about two years ago about THE VERY SAME THING. So it’s not just you, and not only are we both invisible sometimes, we’re also apparently sharing the same mental wavelength. http://intrepidmedia.com/column.asp?id=207