Resting Glitch Face

I had an  interesting experience a couple of days ago. It was about 10:30 am and I was on my way to a doctor's office. I had been up over two hours.  I called the office en route and a woman I didn't know answered the phone. After a brief exchange I said "good bye", only she didn't hang up the phone. I could hear what she was being said in the office. The woman I had spoken to said "He sounded like he was about half asleep." And another responded "He always sounds that way."

I don't have a resting smile face. Unfortunately it's closer to a frown.  I am not an unhappy person it's just how my mouth and face settles in when I'm not thinking about anything in particular. It's something that I am aware of and that I work on. I had a boss once, a boss I eventually fired, who constantly commented on my facial expression.  Publicly and privately he would look at me with a forced smile and say, "Smile David!!" And I would flash a smile for his entertainment.  I was not smiling the morning I told him where to get off and then drove away in the car that I had already packed with my stuff.  Smiles aren't always necessary.  Smiles aren't always appropriate.

So the woman said that I "sounded half asleep."  I wasn't asleep and I wasn't even sleepy. I just have a rather low monotone voice until I get excited about something.  A "resting monotone" I guess you'd say. And I wasn't offended by what she said and have made no plans to talk to anyone about it.  I ask for and deserve the observation.

Boost, a cellular phone network, has a commercial that includes a husband referring to his wife's "resting glitch face."  I did a double take the first time I heard it. The next time I  understood what he was saying. I think mine is more like a "resting solemn face."  I catch that face in the mirror or another reflection from time to time and it scares me a bit, too.  But in spite of my best efforts, I'm stuck with my face! And you are too. Feel free to look away.

When I got to my doctor's office, the woman who made the comment wasn't even there and like I said, I was not compelled to say anything to anyone else about it.  I need to bring the tone of my voice up a notch or two and I need to smile more. But one reason I'm not that concerned about it is that children like me.  Children I know like me and children I don't know like me.  If my voice and face was too scary, I don't think children would hang around me.

So what's my take away from all this?   What is a lesson I can learn from it?  What I learned is to make sure I hang up the phone at the end of a conversation and in the meantime to be careful what I say about the person I was talking to. By the way, I didn't say how long I eavesdropped on those office ladies.  It was actually several minutes, but they stopped talking about me and I lost interest in their conversation. A "resting self-centered streak."