Off and On Kilter

For the past week I've been feeling either a step behind or a step ahead, but generally at a fifteen degree angle to the rest of the world. I still can't place why, and it's been very concerting. But a trio of amusing interactions this morning helped make it better. I had a doctor's appointment this morning, which wasn't actually terribly helpful for the whole off-kilter bit, but I took the train there, and on the way home I got into three separate conversations about my cat hat.

First: I'm standing on the platform at Park Street, reading Make/Shift 5 (good so far!), when a girl walks up to me and says "Excuse me, did you make that hat?" I take out my headphones and say "Not this one, this was a gift, but I've made things like it in the past. Why?" She says, "Well, I have this friend who is making a hat like that, and I think she'd be really happy if I took a picture so I could let her know she's not alone." I said "Sure!" and got photographed in a cat hat. She said "She's actually making a whole costume to express her inner cat or something." I said "People do that, yeah. I've got this dress and gloves and ears combo I wear to parties sometimes." She said "Wow, she's going to be so happy!" and then basically ran away.

Second: I get onto the train and sit down. A guy walks up to me and says "Excuse me, I'm just curious, what kind of reactions do you get when you wear that hat?" I talked to him about the girl who just asked for a picture, and how I get various reactions, mostly good, including little kids pointing at me and shouting "It's a kitty!" (I think half of my largely dormant Twitter feed is "I just got this odd reaction to having a cat hat.") Apparently he and his ex-girlfriend used to have the same exact hat, but they were always afraid to wear them in public. We also talked some about how people don't have conversations with strangers enough in the US in general and on the East Coast in particular. THen he got off the train.

Third: The girl next to me turned to me and said "That's a really awesome hat." We talked some about how wearing cats ears gets different reactions from the cat hat and I suspect but don't know that it's because the hat is more viewed as a functional object. Then she said, "Also I'm glad to hear you wear a helmet when you bike, that saved my brother's life." I said "I don't know that it's ever saved my life but it's sure never harmed it." She nodded. Then she said "You should get cat ears for your bike helmet! Like, you can get them for ski helmets, I bet you could work something out." We talked about how to weatherproof cat ears on a bike helmet until I got off the train.

I feel maybe only twelve-degress off now... and like maybe I want to stay at least two or three. :) I love my cat hat.