From April 28, 2009 -Snipets & Snapshots

I was snubbed at the park recently. Noah and I were sitting in the sand; sunshine on our backs and Lucas was spinning around in the swing with Steve giving him all the pushes he needed. A nice mom, 42, sat next to me and we awed and cooed over Noah and the puppy she had with her. We were having a great time laughing at our kids and just chitchatting away. Another mother, 30, sat with us. The best way I can think to describe her attitude toward me is icy. I might have well as been a phantom sitting there. As soon as she sat down she monopolized the conversation, babbling away about expensive fancy restaurants she apparently frequents all the time and blah-de- blah blah. My sympathetic new friend did her best to include me in the conversation she was now having with Ms. Designer Frame's sunglasses- to no avail I might add. With a smile on my face I ran down the mental checklist of what could possibly be keeping this woman from talking to me?

OK, first, maybe she noticed the temporary tattoo on Luke's arm. It was a swashbuckling pirate from Pirates of the Caribbean, I didn't feel it was in bad taste, but perhaps I was wrong? Second, I was in jeans and a tee shirt, not fancy, but we were at the playground in sand no less. I wore flats that dressed it up a little, but oh-that's right, I too have a tattoo, and no, it's not temporary. OK, so maybe she had an aversion to tattoos- well too bad. Third, I certainly wasn't wearing designer frames. Could all these little things really be enough to ignore me?

Apparently so.



And so the conversation continued to circle around her and her wonderful universe until the gods smiled down on me for being so patient. An opening. Marvelous! My chance had come to re-insert myself into the conversation, make a point and then craftily exit out unscathed while snubbing her back just enough to show her, her ugly side and boy was it showing.

All the restaurant dribble came to a pinnacle when she brought up a relatively new restaurant that I actually knew a thing or two about. And boy did it feel good to correct her inaccuracies. ZING. (Please don't think less of me, or frown upon me for this- but by God, does it feel good to smack someone so rude down.) The color semi-drained from her face, her mouth pinched together (silence at last) and behind her glasses I'm sure she was giving me the death stare as I corrected her, saving for last my credentials and where exactly I got my information. As she rebutted with "My friends work there," and so on, I waited. When she was quite finished, I gracefully stated my piece about the name change and how I had spoken to the owner himself. So there. Hardee-har-har.

Walking away victoriously felt great. But, oh shoot, did I show a little bit of my ugly there too? Ah- the snubbed becoming the snubber (not a real word, bear with me)- a lesson for another day perhaps.