Pass the Meow Mix Please

I love to people watch, but I really hate people who stare. Especially when staring out of ignorance, morbid curiosity, or just plain nosiness because some unique person or event has, in all its splendor, managed to paralyze their shallow lifeless intellect.

Children, I dont' mind. Children stare out of natural wonder. They are curious and interested. Children ask questions. They're unafriad and non-judgemental. It's only from the adults in their lives that they learn to be assholes.

Anyhoo... admittedly, there are certain times when I have been caught staring too, like the record-hot sweltering day in downtown Raleighwood when I watched a homeless man slit his wrists, walk up to a payphone, and dial 911 with blood pouring down his arms and hands... I stared, not so much for the morbidity (working in a hospital will cure that quickly), but rather the horror at witnessing the level of desperation one man was willing to reach in order to escape the miserable heat... or the rude witch of an old lady at the grocery store, who glared at my special child with disgust before scurrying away, when my daughter accidentally knocked over a zuchinni - well, the next time I saw the hag, I just couldn't help but to stare back and declare loudly with locked gaze, "Look hunni, there's that mean old bat that was giving us the evil eye"...

--Of course, once or twice, in the course of chanel-surfing, I've accidentally, against my better judgement, gotten "stuck" watching "Dog, the Bounty Hunter" on TV too... I absolutely despise that show, the redneck idiots that "star" in it, and generally find the whole concept a rediculous embarassment to the entire human race, let alone to the country (although it sure helps to explain alot)... but it's kinda like a really bad train wreck - one just can't help but to sit and stare, mouth agasp.

But when it comes to people staring at children, or disabled people, or most especially disabled children, I often find I'm out of my own control. The problem is generally people, in all their ignorant bliss, love to jump conclusions about what they see or think they see, stereotype, and pass judgement...

Example: I met a wonderful mother at a Parent Leadership Development retreat once, who had unfortunately had learned through experience that it was far easier to summerize her child's emotional and behavioral disabilities as well as basic medical history into pre-printed pamplets to hand out to all the well-meaning and would-be-hero types who feel the need to intervene whenever her child has a public meltdown. (As if this amazing woman didn't endure enough without some know-nothing jackass berating her parenting skills.) People can be o' so cruel in the midst of their own ignorance.

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Recently, during a family excursion to Target, my Bella decided mid-way our shopping spree that she wasn't going to walk any further. As she is too tall for the kid seat, we emptied the cart, piling everything in the front, least it gets tossed out, so that Miss Thang has the entire cart to herself. Kevo grabs a bag of cat food which he places in the cart with Bella since the kid seat is stacked five feet high... and merrily, we continue onward, stopping in the book section before heading to the register... The two of us have our backs to the cart as we browse books, when suddenly I hear Bella's familiar eatting song, "uhm, uhm uhm..." (the cute little humming sound she makes when she really enjoys her food).

I turn around to find my child, not only EATING CAT FOOD, but in the midst of a furious nose bleed as well... OMG! "Take the cat food away from her," I yell as I go sprinting across the store to the toilet paper isle to grab paper and wipes to clean my bleeding child. Meanwhile, from the other side of the store, I hear the tantrum begining... by the time I return, she is in full throws - screaming bloody murder, madder than hell because Kevo took away her yummy snack and was trying to hold her still! To top it off, we dare to try and clean her face! Oh the fun. --Nothing like having a pissed off, screaming, bleeding child to draw a crowd of onlookers... and yes, there they were, parked with carts at the ends of the isle, gawking, witnessing the clear brutalization of a poor helpless child.

At this point, there was really nothing else left for us to do except laugh hysterically... and get the hell out of the store before some dumbass called Social Services.

Adios Mio.

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"Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead."
--Gene Fowler