Take a picture, it'll last longer.

We usually attend church on Saturday evenings and occasionally end up grabbing a bite to eat after and this past weekend was no different.  The weather in our area has been a little stormy the past couple of days and there was a "something smells like it's on fire" smell lingering in the air due to a wildfire burning south of us.  Church was great, the message was about living dangerously for God and the pastor even made a comment about being "tatted up" which my husband and I got a kick out of because he has lots of tattoos, many of which have a spiritual meaning.  (He literally has Jesus on his shoulder.)

By the time we came out of church, it was pouring down rain, all of us were starving and we decided to head to one of our favorite fast food places that serves a healthier fare.  When we pulled up to the building, we each commented that we were glad it didn't seem to be too crowded and that we were only going to get even more wet.  Like most places, this one is enclosed with windows but something really bizarre happened when we got out of our car...everyone inside turned to look at us, and I mean everyone.  It was as if someone inside, yelled, "Hey!  Lets all stop what we're doing and stare at this family walking in!"  It was awkward enough to make my kids notice.  It's not unusual for the people sitting at the tables right by the windows to pause while eating to look up but even the employees behind the counter stopped to stare.  We continued into the restaurant and so did the stares.  I stopped for a second and thought maybe my hair, which I already knew had taken on it's "white girl fro" appearance, had gotten severely out of control (it can be pretty scary) or maybe my fly was down, maybe I had grown an extra head?  We were glowing?  Did we spontaneously grow extra heads?  I didn't know but it was like walking into the Twilight Zone.  (the old school one, not the one with sparkly vampires & werewolves)

I DO know that I have the tendency to remind people of someone they know (someone they either love or hate) and have been followed around stores before (which totally freaks my kids out) until I kindly tell the person that we don't know each other but this was ridiculous.  My Mom would say they were all staring because of our beauty (snort) but she's biased.  The episode only last a few minutes but it felt like an eternity and was long enough to give me a complex.  I wanted to yell, "Take a picture people!  It'll last longer!" Instead I just smiled a polite smile and tried to enjoy dinner with my family.  

When my husband and I discussed it later, while I was suffering through my bout of food poisoning that I picked up from dinner, he said he thought it was more about his tattoos.  This kinda made sense because he gets judged a lot based on the fact that he has them.  He's been out to breakfast with our boys and had people come up and ask I'm if they can pray for him.  He's always polite, saying something like, "Sure, I'll take all the prayer I can get." but I tell him he should show them the Jesus on his shoulder, the Holy Spirit on his arm and the Angel (holding the baby we lost) on his leg.  He handles it must better than I do.  

But our experience on Saturday got me thinking about how I look at people.  Do I see people and smile or do I "look" at them and make them uncomfortable, even if unintentionally... like the people were doing to us?  I'm going to make a better effort to smile more.  :D  (see?)