I’m not sure what’s going on, but just today, in the hour after I finished work, two women “tried to get along with me”, to use the wonderful euphemism I’ve only ever heard Lime use. One of them even saw me with my pants down!

Wait, wait, it’s more innocent than it sounds. My pants were only down a little. She was a nurse in the clinic I went to, and she was jabbing a needle into my butt, delivering what’s probably the last injection of painkillers I’ll need for my tonsilitis (which seems mainly to have passed). The last injection I got, the nurse gave me a little swab and had me press it for a few seconds, and then told me I was ready to go, but this time, today’s nurse insisted I wait a minute to make sure I didn’t bleed. She commented on my (“beautiful”) eyes, asked me my age, and then asked a leading question about whether I thought she was pretty or not. All I said in response, with a big smile, was “아이고!” (“Good grief!” is a bit Charlie Brown-esque but close enough) All the other nurses were teasing her about it, so I just politely thanked her and the other nurse who’d helped me and went on my way.

After picking up my prescription, I went on to the local grocery store (참사랑 마트), just to pick up a couple of things. I ended up at the counter, being rung through by the same short, big, friendly Cree-looking woman who used to be there a lot but I never see anymore. (Maybe she has stopped working nights?) She always used to try to encourage/exhort me to learn Korean, and ask me how my studies were going. This time, she just complained that my food looked really good and that she was hungry. I asked her if she had to wait long before her dinner break, and suddenly, she was asking when I would cook for her, what kind of food I can cook, where do I live, can she come for dinner tonight. I was shocked, and said I couldn’t cook for her, and she laughed and once again told me I’d better hurry up and learn a lot of Korean.

By this point, I was pretty surprised and wondering what was going on. Is there a September effect, some autumnal version of “Spring is in the air”? Once a friend of mine posited that people tend to instinctually try to get together with people at the beginning of what was, earlier in their lives, the beginning of school semesters. Another friend simply said it’s at the beginnings of seasons when people seeking partners feel most free to make bold moves. I don’t know, but I certainly am not advertising availability, unless simply speaking a few sentences in Korean, such as “I need to see the Ear-Nose-Throat specialist” or “Could you please give me a new needle?” or “Yes, the lettuce looks very fresh!” communicate something other than what I mean. I’m not so shocked that these two women tried to “get friendly” with me, I’m just surprised that it happened all of a sudden on the same day.

But maybe they have Messiah complexes? Because I am still feeling somewhat BLEAH from this whole tonsilitis thing, and no doubt to some degree I look the part.