the erant carp: exerci5e i2

When i was a student, wandering around London in my gap year, i discovered the secret of invisibility.

I found i could sit at the top of a double-decker bus, and when the Ticket Inspector came round to collect fares, he or she would pass me by. Now these ticket collectors were trained to watch people, see who climbed on and off the bus, then seek out new passengers between stops and sell them tickets. Somehow i slipped by unnoticed, and sat there unnoticed as they took fares from the people around me. I was a penniless student then, so it was a nice break.

I found i could walk the streets of London, from Leicester Square to Shepherd's Bush, at 2am completely unmolested and unaccosted. The power of invisibility. I was very thin then too, when i was young. A friend joked that if i turned sideways i'd disappear. Maybe it was true.

I thought i'd rediscovered my old trick at a networking event on Monday night. A room full of people, and i sat in it alone, ignored, for most of the night. A woman i met months ago, thru a mutual friend, and who at the time had hooked me up with some contacts, walked right past me when she entered. She was treated rather like royalty. You know, one of those people that everyone in the room wants to say hi and chat to as she passes them. She skipped over me, then stood to my left having a noisy conversation with someone, so it was difficult for me to hear the quite interesting speaker. And she kept hitting me on the side of my head with her handbag every time she adjusted her stance during her animated conversation. As she left, again, several people trying to grab her attention and have a few words, she skipped over me again. I also caught the eye of another fellow i'd met at a previous networking event. He looked blank, ever so slightly puzzled, and moved on. His look said "Who on earth is this woman and why is she smiling at me?"
Yep. I am invisible.

But truth be told, the girl on my right struck up a conversation with me in the break. A fellow i'd discussed a job with several months ago, recognised me and nodded. And as it turns out, the woman who blanked me is "blind" - or at least has terrible eyesight (she wears contact lenses apparently) and is terribly vague and scatterbrained.
So. It's not me then.

But sometimes - usually - the energy you send out is the energy you get back. You feel like a wallflower and people will treat you like one.