Saturday's Lift. Sept. 29th

I realized quickly that I needed to project benign confidence and sanity but everyone would read it as crazy anyway. I can group the people into most, some and a few. Most people gave me the laugh. The laugh says "you are crazy but i am polite so instead of saying 'get the fuck away from me', I'll just laugh. HaHaha.". Most people gave me this laugh as they tried to hurry away. Caught in their own polite no, they were trying to hurry UP a steep hill away from the person who was trying to help them up.
Some people said no, no thanks as they folded their eyebrows together. These people looked up the hill and at the sidewalk chalk and then unfolded their eyebrows slightly. These, some people, looked at me again and said "huh"? This process of rejection, folding, unfolding and questioning only took a few seconds, longer if they walked away and came back. When their eyebrows were back to normal, they would repeat the "huh?". I'd repeat my offer. They would say ok. I loved lifting these people because they had changed their minds. They took a few seconds to do decide to do something weirder than just crossing the street. They were enthusiastic about it which was very nice especially after getting the laugh several times in a row.
A few people said yes right away. I don't know why. I could not look at anyone and ascertain that they would agree without question. I can't say for sure which category I would be in but I would likely not have been in a few.
I don't remember how many people I pushed up the hill at Virginia Ave in the Pike Place Market. The rush for me was asking people with some thrill in the first push and the awkward goodbye. It has analogies in blind dates for sure. Somehow the rush of asking, rejection, or acceptance erased most of the actual lifts from my mind. I have three clear memories though.
1. One lift was a man who was part of a large family all standing at the bottom of the hill. They were some people. After the initial pause and about a three words of discussion, I ended pushing a man and his daughter (who rode in a the stroller) up the hill. I found that they were visiting from Vancouver, BC, were hoping to eat at the Cheesecake Factory and that I was so winded by the time we got to the top, I couldn't talk them out of going to the Cheesecake Factory. Instead I pretended to breath normally, thanked them and said goodbye. I also realized a couple of things that would continue to happen with every lift. First was that everything around me ceased to exist while I was pushing a person up the hill. And Second, no one really gave me their weight until half way up the hill. I imagine that this was when they got tired but I would like to believe that this is when they realized I am extremely strong but you can't tell because of my coat.
2. A young woman who had cool glasses and manicured fingernails, tipped in black polish, came by toward the end of our time. She accepted a lift easily falling into a few category. She was visiting from Northern California with her mother who was getting a lift from one of the other Lifters. This woman was not comfortable getting pushed. She wanted me to walk beside her instead. I was first inclined to keep pushing and show her that she would LOVE IT! But I did move from behind her to beside her and we had a nice chat about their visit. It was nice, I would have been a creep to insist on pushing.
3. I think my favorite guy was the one who really let me push him up the hill. We were opposite in every way. Going up, we mostly talked about our difference in size. Though over double my weight, it didn't deter him from leaning WAY into me from the beginning. Half way up, he lit a cigarette. Near the top he said he felt like he was walking on flat ground. He said that right after he leaned back a little further, spread his arms and yelled "I'M KING OF THE WORLD!". I was the Titanic, you know, before it sank when it was strong and mighty and full of breath. He was very gracious at the top. I was very happy to have had the privilege to give him a lift.