Wednesday, November 26, 2008

My biggest pet peeve of all

"Why do you look so upset?"

"Turn that frown upside down."

"How come you never smile?"

"WHY SOOOO SERIOUS!?!"

I probably hear variations of those phrases/ questions about a hundred times a day from my co-workers. This has been going on for as long as I can remember. People constantly tell me I need to smile, or that I look really sad. I'm sooooooooooo effing (excuse my language) sick of it.

I don't know how to respond anymore. The other day somebody said it, and I told that person I was really sensitive about it. I don't know what to do anymore, I'm not a big smiler. My face looks sad because of genetics! If you've ever met my dad, you would know that he looks kind of pissed all the time. Also he looks like a turtle . . . and so does my Grandpa! (no offense dad).

Maybe from now on I should just tell people that my dog died. Sure, they'll soon start to wonder why I have so many dogs, and why they keep dying . . . but maybe eventually they will just stop asking me. . . . which is all I really want.

I know my sister gets the same question all the time too ( cough . . . genetics . . . cough) and she tells people she just has a very neutral face. I tried that for a while, but people would always say "no, it doesn't look neutral . . . it looks sad". I've also tried telling people that one day I frowned for eight hours and my face just got stuck that way. They just laugh and say "no really, what's wrong?"

Well here I am telling you what exactly is wrong. Are you ready for the answer because I really only want to tell you once. Here we GO . . . . .

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So maybe because you seem to look sad, when you smile people will be really impressed with the difference. You will get more milage out of a smile than those people who have a happy face. Good for your line of work.

Genetics or not, it's a blessing.

Really.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I've noticed that about your dad.

Anonymous said...

No, no, no. What I say is I have an unfortunate neutral face. But I say it in a really upbeat way and then tell them the story of the time I took several pictures of myself making my most neutral face. Turns out I don't have a neutral face. I used to hate it when people asked me what's wrong, but now I just explain my physical limitations and move on. That usually stops the questions.

cadiz12 said...

that sounds like a pretty good line. people probably spend so much time thinking about what an unfortunate neutral face consists of that they forget to ask which dog of yours has died this week.

my neutral face is a little on the smiley side, which causes people to wonder what the heck i'm up to.