Good Deeds That Don't Count For Christmas

what happened to marge simpson's "strangers are just friends you've never met" line? i was being a nice and friendly stranger to middle-aged and defenseless (or at least umbrella-free) ladies, but still they chose not to trust me. huff.

like, for example, the other day i was at glorietta, and i overheard this lady ask a guard how she could get to goodwill bookstore. the guard didn't exactly give clear directions and the lady just settled for a disappointed, "ah..." so i approached her with the warmest of smiles and the most cheerful good afternoon that the sun would shrivel up in shame and told her i'd accompany her to goodwill instead. but what she did, she looked at me from head to foot, raised her eyebrow, and then walked away. man, was it cold in here or was it just you? i swore i could have heard the sun laughing from behind me. my poor deflated good deed balloon.

and then yesterday i took the mrt on my way home from ortigas. it was pretty crowded and it was a bit of a chore looking for a free and reachable steel handle to hold on to. but luckily, with my mutant power of having long limbs, i was able to grab a free railing near the door. unfortunately for this pink uniformed lady beside me, she doesn't have anything to grab a hold of. so when the train started moving, she got off-balanced and quickly reached for something random to keep her steady, that being the bag strap of the guy in front of her. in a knee-jerk reaction, i grabbed a hold of her hand to help her steady herself but then she pulled away right at once and looked away from me. she just contented steadying herself with the poor guy's bag strap.

i thought to myself, ok, i don't think i look like a pervert or anything. i guess these days, people just find good deeds more suspicious (and sometimes more shocking) than bad deeds. sigh. pity that.