I try to exercise every day. I will walk on my breaks at work if it’s not too cold or raining too hard. And after work and on the weekends, I go for a run (well, a run, or a jog, which turns into my walking and telling myself “you can walk this block and then run the next few; it’s called intervals!” while panting, for which I have an excuse: I have asthma. And I’m fat. My point is, I’m exercising outside). And when I pass people, I usually smile, sometimes nodding, sometimes getting out a “hi” between the gasping (or mouthing it, whatever). And sometimes people will smile back or say hi back. But often people just ignore me. Why is that? Why aren’t people nice? Is it because of the aforementioned panting? Or is it because of the sweat pouring off of me? Or are they so horrified by the sight of my trying to run?

I also smile at people in the halls at work. Some people there ignore me, too. That’s usually the people that I know to be not so nice. Most people there say hi or smile or make small talk (sometimes more contact than I want). Actually, this brings me to a funny story. One young woman I work with waits for a ride home in front of the building every day. And apparently, one of the owners of the business said hi to her a few times, made small talk (something like, “nice weather we’re having!”), and waved, and she just ignored him. Someone who works with him a lot called our supervisor and told her that she may want to tell this young woman about this, because he is the big boss, and he said something about making her “his special project” or something. I just think it’s funny. First of all, she’s not overly, um, pleasant. Second, how do you just ignore someone who comes out of the same building as you and is waving and saying hi? It’s so weird. In any case, I’ve passed this man in the hall before and smiled, and he never seems to notice me. Perhaps I’m just not project worthy.

Anyway, I just think it’s rude to completely ignore people as they pass you. And I have another question, this time about sidewalk etiquette. If you’re walking next to someone and you see someone else coming down the sidewalk toward you, shouldn’t you try to step aside, perhaps behind (or in front of) the person you’re walking next to, instead of taking up the entire sidewalk? Wouldn’t that be proper sidewalk etiquette? That’s what I do when I’m walking with someone: I get out of the way. But I notice a lot of people don’t do that, forcing the third (solo) person onto someone’s lawn or into the street. And you know why? Because people are jerks.