Originally Posted by Quentin

It's really funny to watch the evolving reactions of residents in my neighborhood when they first meet me.

At first glance, I think most of them assume that the unkempt, hairy mess standing in front of them must be some homeless day laborer, who until recently was standing on a median somewhere holding a "will work for food" sign, and has simply wandered away from the yard where he is supposed to be sprucing up some rich fellow's lawn.

Once they engage me in conversation, neighbors I'm meeting for the first time typically get a confused look in their eyes somewhere around the middle of my first sentence. While their nerves are somewhat soothed by my relative eloquence (relative to other people who meander about looking like a half-awake hobo, at least), it's something like the reaction children have to watching a parrot speak for the first time: "How does it do that?"

Usually, within a few minutes of conversation, their initial horror at seeing me in the vicinity of their home has subsided, their body language changes, and they start to relax. The thought "maybe he's a normal guy who just happens to have really long hair and a bird's nest for a beard" has taken root in their brain, and they begin to feel it is really just a conversation with a peer (albeit an odd-looking peer).

Of course, it all reverts back to complete revulsion if I answer honestly the question "So -- what it is that you do for a living?"... but that's another story and another set of assumptions, altogether.