I hope that I'm not the only one that this happens to. The scene can be set anywhere: college campus, busy street, office building. The players are the boy and the pretty girl.

The boy is strolling casually when he takes note of the pretty girl. Surreptitiously, he attempts to get a good look at her without her particularly noticing. This takes up quite a lot of mental capacity. Suddenly, he finds himself completely incapable of finding purchase on the ground. His feet flail about for a moment and then he finds himself in the embarassing situation of either clumsily catching himself as he falls or simply falling, flat out, and lying in a daze.

Generally, there is nothing that could have been tripped over, unless you count the cracks in the sidewalk or a stray leaf blown down by the brisk autumn breeze. It is a mystery. The boy attempts to recover by tying his shoes or glancing down at the obstacle-free ground and nodding to himself, as if he'd spotted the nefarious object that had tripped him. The more self-effacing might offer a sheepish smile to the world at large. Regardless of the cover-up, the fact remains: the boy just tripped over absolutely nothing while checking out a pretty girl and trying not to be obvious about the entire affair. The boy feels like a loser. The girl, generally, is oblivious to what happened, as the trip most often occurs just after she's walked past. The worry, of course, is that she'll turn to discover the source of the pedestrian disturbance. The beleaguered boy, at this stage, will have ample opportunity to get a look at her. For the record, she's generally quite attractive. And laughing.

For me, this is an occurrence which is common enough that, well, I wrote a node about it. Am I alone in going from graceful dude to prostrate loser when the needs for locomotion and subtle scrutiny collide?
You're not alone. Although I don't plunge head first towards the pavement with your seeming regularity, I have had the pleasure. Perhaps the most notable occasion being the time I managed to crash my bike into a stationary lorry whilst covertly glancing over my shoulder at the frighteningly attractive young blonde walking past.

Of course she looked round .. she had to. I picked up my bike and battered ego, gave the sky a sheepish grin and tried to ignore the schoolkids who were almost hospitalising themselves with laughter. On the plus side, she returned my grin with a smile that didn't entirely say "You are an idiot".

Of course there is potential for confusion here .. this could refer to tripping (as in acid) while trying to sneakily check out pretty girls. I'm getting mental images of me creeping about (in a manner I imagine to be nonchalant) trying to ogle the girlies .. only for everyone to be laughing at the dumbass who's trying to peer up the 'skirt' of an umbrella.
Hey, she's alright. Pretty nice looking even. I'm feeling a little sick. Should I introduce myself? No, I think I'll just sit here and watch the walls melt. That's funny, I never thought of myself as an annoying little wuss before. Maybe I'm just a little bit strange, like my normal course of action has been changed to accord with the title of a node on some interactive database. No, that sort of thing doesn't really happen when you're sitting still this fast.

She's packing a cone, yet my spine is like an antenna.

I hope she doesn't see me. That would be horrible. I'm feeling so sneaky for some reason. Why sneaky? I think I'm gripped by THE FEAR. Hang on a second that's just my belt, it's a little too tight. I thought it was leather. Fuck, she's so shiny, how does she do it? That cactus was so bitter, the taste is still in my mouth. I think it's my mouth. What do I say to her? I hope she speaks Elvish. Umm.. English. Maybe she doesn't speak - y'know, like a tree or something. Fuck wasting time, I think I'll just float over and say hello.

"Huh? What planet am I on? This one I hope. The pizza man will never find us otherwise."

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