Are You Looking at ME?

I ride a vanpool to and from work.  I ride shotgun, and since we travel mostly in the HOV lane, I get to look down into vehicles as we pass.  In the mornings particularly, I’m not really looking so much as I’m composing my blog for the day.  Sometimes something on the radio, or something one of the other riders says, will plant a seed that blossoms into my blog.  This morning, however, something happened out of the ordinary for me, or at least it is not something I have noticed before.

The traffic in the HOV lane moves fairly consistently as a general rule.  Traffic in the other lanes speeds up, slows down, and sometimes even comes to a complete stop.  This means that we can pass the same vehicles several times.  The driver in one truck was staring at me every time we passed.  That’s odd.  (I know he was looking at me, because he can’t see the driver, and the windows in the back of the van are tinted very dark, and you can’t see in through them.)

We get a little closer to work, and I just happened to see another driver glance at me, then do a double take.  (It was the perfect movie double take – and the quick movement of his head caught my eye.)  OK – this is freaky.  I quickly checked the mirror – I have NOT sprouted a purple horn between my eyes.  There does not appear to be any kind of wardrobe malfunction.  I know from their angle that pretty much all they can see of me is a small part of one shoulder and my head, anyway.  Did you catch that both of these drivers were male?

Could it possibly be that they were actually looking at me, the way any male might look at an attractive female?  My gut reaction would be to deny that categorically, but in the absence of horns, or inappropriate body parts showing, I have to wonder.  I have no aspirations to be a beauty queen, but it would be so nice to think that I might warrant a second glance on occasion.  Of course, maybe they were simply admiring the shiny new van we have, or the Commuter Club logo on the side of the van, but I don’t think anyone will mind if this once I pretend they were looking at me.