I'm a people person. But probably not in a good way.
Maybe I should say, people fascinate me. I like to watch them and tear apart their little idiosyncrasies. I like to study their every move that makes them... them. I'm amazed at how similar we all are, and yet how it's these little nuances that make us all so very different.
Example A, in line the other day at a coffee place, I'm watching the guy in front of me study the menu board. His right hand rubbing his goatee. I do that. Probably a lot. In thought, my right hand raises involuntary, like breathing, starts stroking my chin. But this guys left hand was what set him apart and really got my attention. He was tapping his left hand on his left thigh in rhythm to the song playing on the coffee house sound system. He was really going at it. I wondered if he even knew he was doing it. In the brief pause between songs, this guy's hand paused. The music started again, the hand in perfect rhythm, began tapping again too. So, one of my little idiosyncrasies kicked in, and I immediately began constructing a backstory for this new character in the play I call my life.
His name was Jesse and he was the original drummer for Nirvana. Full name, Jesse Wankstainer. (As a teen, he had a brief run in porn movies and decided to keep the stage name.) Cobain had met Jesse years earlier at a Rotary Club mixer back in Aberdeen, Washington. (For some reason, I always remember that's where Cobain was from.) They started playing a few small gigs around Seattle. I imagined American Bandstand style shows with screaming girls crying in the front row. Jesse and Kurt in long sleeve plaid shirts tucked into Lee jeans. Hair long but not yet full on Castrol motor oil greasy Everything was going so well, their manager, who looked a lot like Tom Hanks character from the movie 'That Thing You Do', told them they were going to be huge and go play the state fair in Topeka! But then Cobain found out Jesse was dating his little sister behind his back. I have no idea if Cobain actually had a little sister, and I also have no idea why it would be such a big deal if Jesse dated her, but damn....Kurt was pissed. Anyway, it was almost my turn to order so I had to finish the story quickly. Kurt and Jesse wound up tussling behind a bowling alley in Spokane. And by "tussling" I mean Cobain mumbled something like, "Hey, stop going around with my sister." And Jesse in a barely audible reply, "No, man." And Kurt just says, "We're donesy, dude."
I laughed a bit under my breath because it's super funny to me to imagine Kurt Cobain saying the word 'Donesy'. For all I knew, there might have been someone directly behind me in line picking up on the fact that there's a guy in line laughing for no apparent reason. Maybe there was and maybe they were making up a story about me in a loony bin with Jack Nicholson. Could be. Just never know. Because people are weird. And that's all I'm saying. People are weird and I'm people. So, happy Friday and let's enjoy some more weird people in today's Daily Grind.