Macrolog
On Social Etiquette
(or, “Say It, Don’t Spray It”)
I pay a visit to my former place of employment, the large music store, ostensibly to purchase an order of mine that arrived over the weekend (the eponymous debut album by The Locust — on a 3” CD no less) but also to shoot the breeze with some of my ex-colleagues.
I spot Denise as I’m making my way out; she’s fitting shelving into a unit behind the new bank of tills between the main doors, where the front window display used to be. We chat for a while about the usual stuff: what’s up?, how you doin’?, etcetera. She mentions that she’s going to see Steve-O’s (of Jackass infamy) live show next week. And I reply to her comment. But in doing so, I inadvertently commit a serious faux pas: as my words come out a few miniscule, yet significant, droplets of saliva make use of my hyperactive lips as a catapult to project themselves, time slowing to a crawl as they fly, in the general direction of her face.
My complete and utter embarrassment is saved when—as luck would have it—my errant bits of spittle fall short of their intended target. And yet I feel almost certain, regardless of this saving grace, that she has seen them as clearly as I have, even though she doesn’t appear to react in the negative. In fact, we continue our conversation as if nothing has happened, despite the fact that it clearly has.
We conclude some moments later and I depart, the dynamic of our relationship not having obviously altered. Yet here I am now, hours after the fact, haunted by my indiscretion, by the possibility she is obsessing about it as much as I am.
I worry too much, don’t I?
Thu 20 Feb 2003 at 19:08 ·
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This is the personal website of MacDara Conroy, a twenty-something journalist, editor and all-round creative type living in Dublin, Ireland.
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You are reading On Social Etiquette, a Macrolog entry by MacDara Conroy. It is filed under Journal, and was published in February 2003.
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