When strangers speak

It warms my heart to see strangers being friendly to each other. I guess it ticks me off the most when people are too busy with technology to interact with people. I can understand if you're buried in a book! I despair at the fact that nobody really talks to people, that people avoid eye contact, and pretend not to notice other people.

Of course, then I turn around and say that's the extrovert's job and go sit by myself and silently send "don't invade my bubble" thoughts at everyone who looks like they want to sit somewhere. It's kind of pathetic, actually.

I'm sure this is an area in which I need to improve. If I don't want to talk to someone who is making conversation (most of the time), I give short, cold answers and sometimes just leave if they don't seem to get the idea. I don't make excuses; it feels like lying. I know it's rude. I need to shape up. I'm really bad at this.

So yeah, I avoid conversation. But some days... it's just unavoidable. And I don't usually deal with it very well.

Just today I passed some older hispanic man on the way to the bus stop. I didn't like the looks of him, but I probably tend to be overly suspicious, due to potentials, prejudices, etc... In any case, he asked how I was (as I feared he would) and of course it only kind of reinforced my negative view of him which may or may not have been unfounded but in any case I gave a cold (maybe bitter?!) "fine" and kept walking, maybe a little faster, not listening to anything else he said.

So, that's an example of how rude and judgemental I am. And yeah, it's good to be careful, especially being a young girl, but I probably judged him way too soon, and my rudeness was unasked for. He may have just been being friendly.

At the bus stop, there were a couple other people who I wasn't worried about or anything. Some people got on other buses and when I got up to catch mine, THEN this dude who has been there the whole time decides to try to make conversation. ??? Why not in the half hour I was there before? I mean, I was a little far away, but that is confusing. In any case, his question caught me off guard, too.
"What do you do?" he asked.
"What?" I replied. He said nothing, so I repeated it.
"Interesting thing to do" he said, and I got on the bus.
My 'what' was partially because of the fact that I usually have people repeat what they said to me so I can get it right. The fact that he didn't repeat it threw me a little.
Also, the question. "What do you do?" sounds like it presumes that one has a job--not one flipping burgers--a profession.
And why would he want to know such a random thing?
And how could he expect to get a good answer as I got on the bus?

The world is confusing. In any case, I appreciate that it wasn't something lame and pointless like "how are you." XD But I don't get what he was trying to accomplish.

One more instance (three stranger run-ins in a day??). This one is a little more vague than the others. Also, it happened earlier, chronologically.
I am sitting and studying and then I hear someone yell, "Claire, do you have bus fare?"
o__o
 I think I must have misheard. Nobody here knows me as Claire and I don't know why anyone I do know would stop by and ask such a silly question. So I look in the direction it came from and there's someone in a car, but I can't tell if they're looking at me, but nobody else seems to be looking at them, and they just drive away.
Maybe I misheard. It was just odd. In any case, some good did come of it. I made sure I remembered putting my bus pass in my wallet (I had) and that made me remember my school ID was still in my jacket pocket so I put it away and that way it wouldn't get lost.
I mean, maybe that's the reason I heard that, to prevent me losing something pretty important.
Now, I'm not saying that was the case here, but I wonder about things like if God would have someone yell something random to no one in particular just to remind some kid about their school ID. That takes a lot of faith, not to mention guts. I mean, especially if you never know if anything comes of it, it seems really ridiculous. I would probably wonder if I heard wrong.

Anyway, that's my strange, thought provoking, and imperfect stranger-interaction for the day.