I Spy ... Ignorance

The following conversation takes place on almost a daily basis in my life. It is had with complete strangers, on the subway, in the grocery store, at the pub and on the streets. It is also a major pet peeve of mine:

Stranger: "Wow, you're really tall."
Me: "yup"
Stranger: "No seriously, are you wearing heels? How tall are you?"
Me: "No seriously, are you wearing lady’s underpants? How much do you weigh?"
Stranger: "wha ...?"
Me: "Let me just interrupt you here and save you some time. Yes, I play basketball. Yes I play volleyball. Yes, both my parents are tall. How do you think I turned out like this? Are there any other overly personal inappropriate questions you'd like me to answer for you?"

Please don't think me rude dear friends, but seriously?! I understand these strangers think they are paying me a compliment but honestly, it isn’t any of their business how tall I am. It is rude to approach an overweight person and ask them how much they weigh, you do not ask a little person for their height, so why me?

My favourite part is how people think they are imparting great knowledge on me. Really? I’m tall? Are you sure? I thought everyone had to special order pants with a 36” inseam online!

Lastly, for those of you out there who think this is an acceptable icebreaker in approaching a potential romantic interest, consider this:

If your romantic interest is in fact quite tall, they have already had a conversation about their height in the last 48 hours. This conversation was most likely with a complete stranger whom they found rude and annoying. It could have been with an elderly person, a child, the creepy guy on the subway ... do you want to be associated with these people? No, I didn’t think so. Pointing out the obvious will get you nowhere, originality and whit will take you places.

Ignorance, in this case, is NOT bliss.