With "friends" like these...

I’ve had my share of bad pick up lines. I think I might be a magnet for them. And even though you should think that the pick up lines came from a brain storming among mental health patients, few are. One of the worst was from a tattooed guy asking me about “the Pokémon” on my arm. I was a bit taken back. Luckily a friend of mine answered: “Yeah, isn’t it cool? It washes off”. Insults might work on him, but not me. Even though I think I’m close to being a dude, I might not be. Especially if insults works on guys. In my experience it doesn't work too well. But usually I’m not a picker upper, I’m a pick upee.

And just so it is said, this was one of my better ones. One where you could suspect there was some actual thinking involved. A process. Not just careless, and thoughtless, words falling out of a male mouth. To be honest, I don’t know which is worse.

But maybe it is just me. Maybe there is something about me that makes people think that an insult, disguised as a compliment, or vice versa, is the sure way to get noticed by me. And in that respect it works. The problem, for the speaker, is that they are eternally in my bad books. I remember who and what, though I seldom understand why. And I rarely forgive.

The latest addition to my list of "interesting conversation starters" (formerly: "pick up lines of another dimension") is a contribution from people I knew from far back, which I didn’t really care for then, and not really now either. A couple of those have felt the need to say to me: ”wow, you have become prettier”. Do they have a club? Seriously, it is annoying and rude, and it also implies, besides from not being pretty then, I am only prettier now. Not pretty.

These people judge me by one thing only. And I'm just too old to worry about what that kind of people think about me. And to be honest, again, I’m not really concerned about being pretty. It was never my thing, not then and certainly not now. They can have pretty, or prettier, and go tell someone who cares. For now, it is in my book. And I’m just waiting.