NoJoMo Day #21 - Someone I just Met in The Long and Winding Road

Day Twenty One: What do you first notice about someone you’ve just met?

This is an interesting question! I’ll tell you the first thing I notice but I can hardly stop there.

The first thing I notice is how they keep themselves. I don’t care if they are wearing thrift shop clothing or beautiful clothes from the most expensive stores, but I notice whether they are neat or sloppy, and whether they take care with their appearance or not (hair clean, nails clean, etc.). I notice their teeth – whether they have good or bad teeth. Which isn’t a judgmental thing. I know some wonderful people who do not have good teeth, usually because they cannot afford dental care. I’m just saying it’s something I notice.

I notice their eyes. You can tell whether someone is kind or not by their eyes.

I notice their demeanor. Friendly and open, looking down their nose at people, closed off and defensive, making eye contact or not.

I’m fairly intuitive about people. I get a vibe pretty quickly. Genuine, caring, phony, smarmy, whatever. I often pick up on little nuances that other people don’t. Or at least that’s been my experience when I’ve had an opportunity to compare my reaction to someone new, with friends. Time almost always proves my gut reaction to have been accurate. Case in point is the guy who married my step-sister’s daughter that I wrote about in a recent entry – from the minute I met him, he set my hair on edge. He seemed smarmy. That’s the best word for him and to me that is a very descriptive word and not one I have occasion to use very often. It was subtle, and my sisters didn’t pick up on it, but time proved him to be smarmy and more.

Of course, I can be fooled too. My intuition is not fail proof!

Last updated November 21, 2015