Alone or Lonely: Which is it?
Today, I watched the sandwich maker (Albert) in the corner deli make my lunch: Spicy turkey w. munster cheese on a toasted wheat bread. No lettuce, no tomato. Just mustard. Knowing his propensity for stacking cold cuts a few inches higher than normal, I warned him early on: Just a little bit of turkey. The lady in front of me flirts with Albert, and he smiles and says to his fellow sandwich-maker: Con papas. She likes it with fries. What?! The lady in front of me asks/yells/flirts. Albert responds: I said with fries. You like it with fries. Oh, she says, I thought you said something else. Albert's English is perfect, which is shocking to me and makes me painfully aware of my prejudices toward sandwich makers who are of Hispanic descent. Perhaps he is American born and raised. He likes his work and therefore does it. OR he's learned the language well through years of working at the deli. He hands me my sandwich with the arbitrary numbers 4.47 written across the wax paper. Was it the same yesterday? I can't remember.
I leave work early, my friends accusing me of being antisocial. For years, I have been in denial of this bitter-sounding term: antisocial. ANTI-social. Is there a pause in the middle? Or is it one word -- antisocial? What does it mean to be antisocial? I have nothing against social behavior or people for that matter; given that, this word is so mistakenly wrong and wrong-sounding. It points a finger rather than describe a behavior or an act. Is it wrong to love being alone? Is being alone all of a sudden taboo? To quote Hope Davis in Next Stop Wonderland: I feel lonely only when I am amidst strangers and not when I am alone.
posted by Jubilee @ 12:44 PM
