pattern recognition

[starryeyed77]

okay this is going to sound insane but i need to write it down.

went holiday shopping today. hit like five different stores. and i started noticing something.

everyone - and i mean EVERYONE - who was working retail had this... same energy? like they were all calm and pleasant and helpful but in the exact same WAY. same smile. same tone of voice. same "happy to help you" delivery.

which like, i know retail workers are trained to act a certain way. i KNOW that. but this felt different.

at the bookstore, i asked the guy for a recommendation and he just... paused for a weirdly long time. then smiled and said "whatever you choose will be perfect." not helpful? but delivered like it was the most helpful thing he could say?

then at the electronics store, same thing. asked which printer was better and the woman said "they're all good choices" with that same smile.

i'm probably reading into this. holiday season is stressful and everyone's probably exhausted and running on autopilot.

but it felt WEIRD.

also went to dinner with sarah and mike after and mike told the same story he told me last week. word for word the same story. about his coworker's dog. when i said "you told me this already" he just smiled and said "oh" and kept eating.

sarah either didn't notice or she didn't care that he'd repeated himself.

i don't know which is weirder.