reykir

I have been told that I seem like a smoker, frequently, of course, by smokers, and most frequently by smokers who are ducking out of a party for a few minutes, ostensibly for a smoke. I do not smoke and never have, and I have chosen to interpret this odd declaration, generally delivered with seemingly genuine astonishment, not as a comment on any odors emanating from my person (I assume such would be less evident to smokers than to non-smokers) but instead on some indefinable aura of "coolness" or "one-of-us-ness." Anything is possible. I have been mistaken for a French person, apparently on account of my mode of dress and my hairstyle. I have been mistaken for an Icelander (ironically, while wheezing outside Næsti Bar, having been overcome by the atmosphere within). I used to laugh uproariously at the John Waters pro-smoking clip that was shown before every movie at my local cinema before they shut it down, even though I was very happy that there was, indeed, no smoking in that theater. Perhaps I have an aura of black-clad, pseudo-Euro coolness.

It occurs to me now that what they are picking up on might be a certain social shyness that comes through even when I am enjoying myself at a party, the kind of thing that might lead someone to want to duck away from the press for a few minutes, just to get a breather. Maybe that's all they're doing themselves.