Do we know what people are thinking?

The other night I went out to eat at theTriumph Brewing Company here in New Hope.   We had excellent food and really good service that night.  The best part was the company I was with and the good time we had chatting with like minded people.  What got me thinking of this story was I was asked if I noticed the two younger people staring at me that night?  To be honest I didn’t notice but I also usually don’t notice things like that.  I think over the years I have developed a thick skin to stares as well as I just tune things out.   But it did remind me of what happened when we were visiting Tina’s mom one time. 

We went out to eat at one of Tina’s favorite places to eat when we visit her mom, its called Luigi's.   Their food it really good and the restaurant has a nice atmosphere as well.  While we are eating this couple came in and sat down across from us.  Like usual I didn’t pay much attention, but Tina did and said to me.  Do you see those people staring at us?  I started watching and saw that they were paying close attention to us for sure.  My first thought is are they staring at us because they perceive us as a gay couple, or because they have read me as trans, I really couldn’t tell but they were really intrigued with us for sure!  So I told Tina I’m going to get to the bottom of this and buy them a glass of wine and see if I can chat with them.  Tina was don’t you dare reward them for staring at us, if you do I’m out of here.  They are just going to make a scene.  Brenna our oldest was egging me on as well, so I orders them up some drinks J  Tina, Christa and her mom high tailed it to the car and Brenna and I went over to them to have a chat.  I was on high alert and was not going to put up with any crap, however I thought that I would be tactful to start with.  They greeted me and said thanks, but wanted to know why I was so friendly in buying them some drinks.  I said I saw you staring at us sense you got here and you looked nice and thought I would be nice.  Here is it got interesting, they said that they travel all over the country racing bikes and that they stopped at that restaurant because it looked like a nice one.  They said that they see lots of families out there but not many as nice as us and they couldn’t get over how well  our children behaved and how happy we were as a family.  I think the moral of the story is you can’t judge what people are talking about from afar, and you can’t let your own insecurities cloud into a judgment of what people are thinking or saying about you.