That's my bad.

If you've ever caught me staring at you, I apologize.  I'm a starer.  If you haven't caught me yet, I'm sorry in advance.   And also, I'm sorry because I realize my resting face makes me look angry.  I'm not angry.  I'm just resting.

I think people are so interesting.  I like to see how people react to things.  I like to watch body language.  I like to watch the love struck look on a boy's face when he talks to the girl he likes.  I like to watch the girl twirl her hair as she talks back.  I like to see grownups interact with toddlers.  I like to study people's faces when they spontaneously laugh.  I like to file away interesting character traits and mannerisms and physical features for times like now, when I'm writing a novel.  (Heh.  I'm writing a novel!  Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...sorry.  I'm pretty excited.)

And now that I am writing, I stare even more, because now I'm looking for people who look like characters in my book.  If I see someone who is the same build, or who has the same color eyes or hair, I stare.  Because apparently, my imagination isn't enough and I like to see the hair in action.  Once at the grocery store I saw a couple who had the same height difference as my two main characters, and the girl had the right color hair, and the boy wasn't ugly, and they were holding hands!  So I casually followed them around for a while, taking notes on how her arm bent so they could hold hands comfortably, how he looked down when he talked to her, how their conversation was so casual and about nothing.  (Okay, no, I made that last part up.  Eavesdropping?  Gosh, that would be creepy.)

Once I saw a guy who looks exactly like I pictured the main character's brother to look, and as he walked past I gave him too wide of a smile and he looked at me weird, but all I could think was, "I didn't even know he worked for the post office!"

So again, sorry about the staring.  You're just so darn interesting!

**on a completely unrelated side note, do you want to know what I like even more than seeing my characters in flesh and blood?  Jenna had a dream the other night where she was at a party with friends (I know, she's only 7, what's up with the party dreams?) and my main characters showed up.  In her dream!  And she totally knew who they were!  Isn't that awesome?