I am your basic white, middle-aged, middle-class average female…no hot factor at all, no intriguing wardrobe or stunning looks. The kind of woman most people never give a second look. So occasionally, just to rattle some cages and remind people that I exist, I will do something slightly wacky. Nothing illegal, nothing tawdry…just something to perhaps make someone rethink their perception of me.
For example, a few years ago, when my job provided valet parking, I realized that the guys parking my car were listening to my music or books-on-tape for longer than it took them to park my car. I would have to rewind quite a way to get back to where I had left off…not hours, but much longer than the three minute drive. Sometimes the tape would be popped in when I know I had ejected it. So I started picking strange tapes to leave in the tape player…like “Learning Conversational Klingon”…just for the benefit of the valet-parker. This amused me for two weeks, then I went back to my usual Phil Collins/David Wilcox rotation for a month or two. And then, I’d pop in my son’s techno tape and leave it cranked waaaay up for about three to five days. Then back to Peter. Paul & Mary. I never knew if it made any impression at all, but it amused me!
So what have you done to shake up people’s perceptions of you? What glimpses beneath the placid exterior have you allowed, just for the purpose of your own warped amusement?