Should I be angry or amused? I'll take amused.

At first when people started noticing my belly and taking the liberty of asking me all sorts of personal questions and scrutinizing my figure in usually inappropriate ways I was a little self-conscious. My child’s gender has been predicted based on the size and shape of my abdomen more times than I can remember (according to most people it’s a boy because I’ve expanded up more than out; one woman told me that if it were a girl my butt would be bigger.) But now I’ve come to appreciate these little comments as other people’s excitement and desire to share in the joy of new life and so I just roll with it.

Yesterday was a little different.

I was washing my hands in the bathroom at WalMart. There was another lady in there -- about 50ish, small, and witch-like -- who seemed to be adjusting the back of her dress, so she was looking into the sink as she reached behind her head. Lifting only her eyes, she said to me, “Is this your first baby?”

Me, smiling, anticipating her excitement for me: “Yes.”

Then, in a tone of neither curiosity nor cluelessness about the socially acceptable but rather a flat tone of accusation and still without lifting her head she said, “How old are you.”

I was so taken aback that I wasn’t quick enough to say, “How old are you? And how much do you weigh?” Or even, “Excuse me?” Instead I just said, “Twenty-four.”

Her tone didn’t change, and she replied, “You look very young.”

I laughed and said, “Yeah. But I’m married.” And then left the bathroom.

Maybe you had to be there, but I was blown away by the gall of the whole thing. I know I look like a pregnant teenager, but to indict me for it…come on!