Last week I attended an awards show, as Kathleen was receiving a scholarship here in Calgary. Kathleen had to leave back to Fort Saskatchewan after the event, so after saying my goodbyes, I boarded the C-Train. There was a guy in front of me, that I must have done something to, because he kept on giving me strange looks.

So from the downtown core, all the way to Chinook Station, I kept my head down, and when I would glance up, this guy was still staring at me angrily. I just ignored him, and totally forgot about him by the time I got to Chinook Station. As I stood up to get off the train, the guy gave me a light punch in the side. It didn’t hurt at all, but it was a punch. I get off the train and look behind me, and he is following me and hear him mutter “Fucking four-eyes!”

I got my glasses 3 years ago now. The only time I was ever self-conscious wearing them was at first, because they were new. I wasn’t afraid of people looking at me any differently; it was more just always being aware of them because they were new. I never, in my life, thought I would be insulted because of my glasses, maybe if I had them in elementary school. But the insult came from some totally random 40 year-old-ish stranger on the C-Train. My feelings aren’t hurt but I’m still shocked I heard those words come out of a grown man.

Furthermore when I got off the train, another train was coming into the platform. I stayed away from the edge… who knows if he would have pushed me. I’m still curious about how I pissed him? Oh well.