A Stranger's Curiosity

I went out for pizza last night with the family, and while we were searching for the perfect table I felt that somebody's-staring-at-me-feeling. Once we sat, I glanced around and sure enough, there's a woman staring right at me; she flashed me a pleasant smile when our eyes met, I smiled back, looked away, and thought, "Uh, oh. I must know her. But I DON'T know her. At least I don't think I don't... Maybe I do?" Something like this has been happening to me quite a bit lately (well, 2 or 3 times in the past few months, which is a lot more than usual), where I have an entire conversation in a public place with someone who clearly knows me, and I walk away completely dumfounded as to who they are. Must be the pregnant brain, I guess.

Anyway, back to the restaurant. A few minutes later I'm glancing around the room again and she's STILL staring -- we smile again, but nothing more. I whisper something to Bill about the woman sitting at 3 o'clock looking at us, and does she look familiar, but he says, "No." I figure she's listening to the kids and is simply amused. Soon the waitress comes by, takes our order, and is off again. Curious if we still seem intriguing I glance in the strange woman's direction once more. This time she speaks, "Do you know what you're having?" Oh! Sure, now it all makes sense. "No," I say, "we like to be surprised!" I focus back on my family and Bill gives me the strangest look and says, "But we just ordered...Cranky Sticks and a large cheese." I bust out laughing, containing myself enough to say, "She was talking about the baby! Clearly my belly is getting pretty obvious." He's laughing now too, and says something to the effect that I must be used to the questions strangers ask, because who wouldn't assume she was asking about food when we're sitting in a pizza joint? Imagine, as we did, how much more comical the situation could have been had HE answered her question with, "The usual. Cranky Sticks & a large cheese. And you?"