Do perfect strangers touch you?
I've been going out to parties, bars, beer and food festivals, football/hockey/baseball games, you name it with a good girl friend of mine. We'll usually meet up with co-workers and have a great time. The goal is not to meet that special someone it's just to meet a bunch of new San Franciscans and have a lot of fun.
I really enjoy it because I'm literally meeting new people every week. Usually I hang out with the same few people doing very closed off things like movies, dinner, rock climbing, etc. so these new group activities are fun for me.
I've noticed something that I've never noticed before. Perfect strangers tend to touch me within moments of meeting me. It's not inappropriate touching. It's an arm around the shoulder, a hand at my waist usually. It doesn't bother me (much) but it does strike me as something a friend would do, not something a stranger would do.
It happens pretty often and at first I chalked it up to flirting but I've had a few women come up and put their arm around me too. Yesterday at beerfest, a guy walked up to our group, planted himself next to me, grabbed me by the waist, carried on with a 2 minute conversation with everyone in the group except for me, and then walked away without acknowledging my presence. It couldn't have been flirting because he didn't even say anything to me.
Later that night, at a bar, I was sitting there waiting for my friends to come back with our drinks and this really cute guy walks past me, leans over, and taps me on the knee with his water bottle. Then he continues walking away. I tried to catch his eye but he ignored me for the rest of the night.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?! Do I give off some type of vibe that says "Ok to touch."? I'm not really bothered by it. I find it amusing, but I would like to know why people do it. I would never dream of touching/hugging a perfect stranger.
