So I’m walking into the office this morning. As I approach the door, I see in the reflection of the glass door there is someone behind me. So I walk through the door and hold it open. You know, you just prop the door until the person is close enough to grab the door on their own. Happens every day, millions of times all across the planet, it’s a common courtesy and nothing new or outrageous.
So the person (a woman, not that it matters) steps into the doorway…. without grabbing the door. I let go of the door at that moment when most of the people in the world would have grabbed the door. It bumped her slightly. In the slow early morning haze of my mind this registered somewhere.
I opened the second set of doors, and again walked through and propped the door for her. And again, she didn’t grab the door. But this time she hurriedly skooched forward so as not to get bumped by the (heavy) door again.
So I’m standing there in the doorway, propping the door so it doesn’t bump her again, and this woman is trying to skooch into the same doorway without touching the door. Again, this registers somewhere in the fog of my mind. Mind responds “Hey dumbass. Get out of the doorway. She’s going to run you over, cuz she ain’t touching that door”.
So the body responds by letting go of the door, which of course starts to close. Crazy woman skooches forward that much quicker to avoid getting bumped by the door. So now I’m walking through the door with this crazy lady *uncomfortably* close behind me. Well within my personal space, but trying not to run into me, but desperately trying to avoid being whacked by the door.
Awkward.
Then the elevator comes.
I always let the women get on the elevator first. But before I could turn to her and give the “you may proceed” hand wave, she bolted onto the elevator and went straight to the back. Didn’t push a button or anything. Just bolted on, went to the rear, and stood there.
If I were a little more coherent, I probably would have taken the next elevator. But it was still early so I toddled onto this one. I don’t know if she ever made it to her floor. There was someone already on the elevator and maybe the floor she needed was already pushed. But there is some part of me that suspects she rode the elevator up and down until perchance someone got off on the same floor as her.
So why was she avoiding the door? I’ve never seen anybody do that. I can understand (to a point) not wanting to touch stuff with the H1N1 going around. Heck, maybe she has some cooties and didn’t want to spread them around (in which case… THANKS!). But usually people just let the door hit there arm/sleeve or even their body. They don’t run up on the person in front of them trying to get through the door at the same time.
Weirdness.