A Face In A Crowd.

I've always wanted to move to a big city, someplace where the sheer size of the place breeds anonymity. I wanted to be able to walk down a street and know no one. I wanted to only have a vague sense of my surroundings so I could discover new places.

Thanks vidiot!

But I also wanted to be noticed. I wanted to be seen as the mysterious outsider that happened upon this city and was perhaps just stopping by on my way to some place exotic. I cultivated this idea from spending a lot of time waiting in airports, people watching and being watched by people. Airports are like a microcosm of the world; strange, interesting, normal, boring people converging in one place for a short amount of time and they can be anyone, going anywhere. There is a mysterious appeal about airports and I could never get enough.

It started by being stranded in SFO when I was 12, I wasn't stranded as in left on my own, but as unable to get on a flight to get back home; one of the pitfalls of flying standby that somehow are always over looked when people hear about airline employee benefits. So there we are, stranded at SFO, it's 4 PM and my family and I have been there since 5 AM, rule of thumb: first flight out. But we missed that one and the one 3 hours later and the one after that until we had one more to try for that left at 8 PM. I usually had my brother to play with to occupy the time, but we got into a tiff about who could be Michelangelo in our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pretend game and my mom took my brother's side so I walked off in a huff. My mom said she knew where I was the whole time but I liked to pretend I was on my own. I thought that would teach my brother a lesson, although looking back I don't know what the lesson was because I was the one who felt a timid and hesitant as I turned on my heels trying to act big, but knowing that I wouldn't go too far away. It was under this premise that I sauntered into the food court with the weight of the world on my shoulders and hoping my faced showed it too. I was at that age when I thought that anyone who saw me would understand the betrayal I just went through as if my feelings were the only thing that mattered. I sighed deeply and walked to Noah's bagels with exaggeratedly drooped shoulders.

Thanks nic launceford!

I was sure the people at the tables were nodding emphatically at me. I got to the counter and ordered a plain bagel with strawberry cream cheese and a chocolate milk. I thought about eating my snack in my brothers line if vision to make him jealous since he didn't have his own allowance money and mom wouldn't let him have sugar so late in the day. I decided against it because something interesting caught my eye and piqued my curiosity.