I have become THAT woman. The woman who starts talking to perfect strangers in an attempt to educate them about an issue important to me; an issue that should be important to them.
I am that woman who appears to be rambling on about something trivial because everyone around me is either unaware or just plain uninterested and therefore disengaged. I stare at still-stocked shelves in one set of stores then read about other stores closing their doors or reducing their inventory due to CPSIA. In my head, the image of a roulette wheel turns round with people’s livelihoods at stake. Les jeux sont fait.
I am that woman who can’t look at a pair of shoes, a library book, a bicycle, a ballpoint pen, a pillowcase, a [insert product for child under 12 here] and not think about how each of these items falls under CPSIA. My friends talk of holding garage and rummage sales and my head starts involuntarily moving from left-to-right and I mumble, ‘yep those too’. They stare at me like someone who is talking to herself in gibberish.
I am that woman who tries to temper her intensity in the hopes that people will listen only to realize that, before I even begin talking, their eyes have started to glaze over. My straightforward explanations supported by sound knowledge of the law don’t bring people back to reality. So I am now THAT woman to them.
I am lost.
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I remember “that woman” well: I was in the line at Sam’s Club with two small children in tow, and she started screeching about Abu Ghraib. When I said a few placative words by way of indicating that I really had no interest in talking about Abu Ghraib with random women in the line at Sam’s Club, she just kept going. As her merchandise got to the front of the conveyor belt, she moved in front of the cashier but wouldn’t take her eyes off me; her transaction pulled her away like secret police, with her still screeching “Abu Ghraib!!” at me.
I think the defining characteristic of “that woman” is not the single-minded focus, but the inability to read the signals and know when to disengage.
I am that woman too. You are not alone!
I’d also add for you (and so many others). “I am that woman who won’t give up. Who takes challenges head on and who will make a difference.”
You ARE That woman.
(Don’t forget it)
Oy, yes, me, too!
I am that woman too You are not alone!
I talked at my friends for an hour today about the CPSIA. They mentioned a garage sale, I told them that was against the law as written. We went to a bicycle store to get a part for a new project. All the kids bikes were there for sale. I was upset. I talked at the store owner. He said the bicycle industry news had said it was OK because of the ‘inaccesable’ clause, I tried to tell him to read the law itself, he’d see that they were wrong. It was obvious and Honda, Kawasaki etc and me could not be wrong. His eyes galzed over and looked relieved when a real customer came up.
I was also that woman who was telling people between Sept 11th 2001 and before we went to war with Iraq, to read the document, entitled Rebuilding America’s Defences: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century, it was written in September 2000 by the neo-conservative think-tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC) by Chaney, Wolfowitz etc. (for a managable synopsis read http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/sep/06/september11.iraq ) I tried telling peolpe, yes Sadam needs to go but not for the reasons being given, this needs to be discussed properly.
Time and a mountain evidence has proven me right, but it doesn’t make me feel any better. The same with the CPSIA. I wish I was wrong, and I wish I wasn’t that woman.
But, also why should we disengage when the discussion becomes uncomfortable for others. This a Democracy and it is made more powerfull and stronger by an honest discussion of what our Government is doing, for right or wrong. This is what makes America great. I still have faith in it, even when some eyes glaze over.
People no longer ask “How are you?” or “How’s business?” when they come to the counter at my store because I tell them. In great CPSIA detail. Then they look furtively around, perhaps glance at their watch and walk slowly, in a backwards motion away from the counter. I often find myselves talking faster and raising my voice as they walk away, and yell “Check for more details on my website” as they walk out the door …
I am that woman who is subjecting her Facebook friends to a feed of my blog rants. Very few of them have actually asked me what it’s all about, but God forbid they do, because I am only too quick to launch into it. I educated the paint rep at Lowe’s yesterday — I don’t know if he thinks I am crazy or not (but at least he listened). My extended family has been roped in by way of requests to calls to senators and congresspeople. And my poor, poor husband who has a wife with an obsessive focus. I get it.
Yup, me too.
*backs slowly away from the crazy lady*
I thinks it’s a good thing to be that lady to some degree. Raising awareness is always good but to really make the info stick and to help people know what to do abut it suggest you create some kind of post card sized flyer. The flyer will have info about the CPSIA and what to do about it, web sites, etc.In fact, it could actually be a post card that people can use to send to their congress people maybe. Anyway, handing these out to people would b a great way to make your work raising awareness stick. When you make the post card put the template on your blog so that we can all print it an use it too.
I AM THAT PERSON. And everyone asks for it, and more information… and what I am doing now, and did’nt they change it to allow you to make stuff?
I educate, and ramble and chatter. It is everywhere around me.
I took my kids to get new shoes and jeans, and found myself finding lead of all kinds in everything I looked at, with my special XRF vision I have acquired over the past few months.
rrrrrrrrrrr
:0) Trevor
I am THAT woman! The girl that people keep seeing on the local news and they have no idea what I was talking about and all they heard was the word “lead”. I’m the lady that doesn’t get asked “how is business” anymore since I start my answer with a big, deep inhale so I can attempt to explain the law and it’s impact on companies nationwide, big and small in one long breath before they can interrupt or change the subject. I am that woman that people are afraid to ask “how was your day” because if the CPSIA hasn’t messed with my emotions, then my son definitely has. I am also the woman that will always have something positive to say regardless of how I am feeling at the moment. I am that woman with the pom poms still flailing as I continue to cheer you on! Now I really need to go to sleep and turn my CPSIA brain off!
Well put! I am totally that woman. I always wondered how folks became homeless mumbling to themselves in the street. It all falls into place now.
I see all the me toos – I was going to say, you’ve become me then!
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