Two Incidents Involving People I Don't Know:

Incident 1:

Last night, Miguel, Donaldo, Jay, Boston, and I went out to play pool. After we finished our last game and headed to sit at the bar, I saw my friend Matt that I used to work with at Rustler's Rooste.

I hadn't seen him in three years, so I ran over all excited and punched him in the arm to get his attention. He looked pretty surprised to see me. "Hey man! What's up!" I said. I stuck out my hand, shook it vigorously, and gave him a hug.

"Uh, just hanging out, what about you?"

"I'm here with some friends; we just got done playing. How are things, are you still working at the Rooste?"

"The what?"

What did he mean, the what? I looked at him more closely and realized that while his profile looked exactly like Matt, face-to-face he looked less like Matt and more like someone I didn't know at all.

"Eh, uh, I mean, where are you working now?" I asked him, committing myself to the charade.

He told me, and for about a minute we conversed. I could tell he was desperately trying to figure out where the hell he knew me from, but I don't think he could tell I was desperately trying not to let him realize that he didn't know me at all.

It's a good thing people aren't honest with each other, otherwise he might have admitted that he didn't recognize me and asked who I was. Then I would have been screwed.

I didn't wait long to make my escape. I extended my hand and said, "Hey, it was good to see you, take care." We shook hand again, and to further confuse him I hugged him again. It seemed to work, he still looked pretty confused.

Then I got the hell out of there.

No real harm done. He will maybe feel like a jerk for not recognizing me. I'll learn to be very careful to make sure I know who people are before I run up and bear-hug them.

Incident 2:

Tonight, we three brothers and Boston went out to a bar Miguel knew of called Rogue. It's a punk bar and they had a live band playing that night. It was fun.

One of Miguel's friend's friend was celebrating his birthday there tonight. His friends wanted to "punk" him and have Donaldo, Boston, and I go up to him, shout obscenities and threaten to beat him up, and then him and all his friends would burst out with "Happy Birthday To You."

This isn't the kind of thing I normally approve of; triggering someone's fight-or-flight instincts in a crowded bar, but I figured his friends knew what was best for him so I agreed.

The band is almost done with their set so we wait for them to finish. When they do, I take point, stride up to him and begin my verbal barrage. I was thrown off in the middle of it when he turned and started walking away. I circled him again, shouted "We're gonna do this right here, right now!" Then I began to caterwaul, "Happy Birthday toooo yoooou! Haaaappyy Birthday tooo yoouuu!" All his friends joined in, we finished our song, and he looked very relieved.

I considered it my good deed for the evening.