Keeping Your Distance

I wasn't really sure what to write about for my first true post, then this morning it hit me. Let me digress for a moment. I tend to have what I'll call "Larry David Moments" from time-to-time. If you're not familiar with Larry, Google Curb Your Enthusiasm. It's a show on HBO about a guy whose life is pretty much one big awkward moment. So this morning I was hit with one of those moments.

Back to post...My question is, how close do you have to be to someone before you have to wave and/or say hello? I find that if you are too far away they may not see you, in which case you appear to passers by to be waving to an imaginary friend. But if you are fairly close but don't wave or say hello it becomes awkward, almost tense...like a wave stand-off.

The other day I was in a parking lot walking past a guy I know I've met several times. I say past, but we were probably 20 feet apart, walking in the opposite direction but converging. I looked him square in the face, made eye contact for a good second, then waved. No response. I felt like an idiot. I turned my attention, but then looked back to see if I had registered to him yet. A good 2 seconds went by, we were probably 10 feet past each other, then he looked at me again, so I said hello. Then he finally registered that he knew me. Or at least pretended to. So I decided that if I'm not within about 10 feet of someone I'm not making contact.

Fast forward to this morning. I was walking to work along the sidewalk, and perhaps 50 feet in front of me is a lady I knew, walking my direction. I put on my best "I don't see you yet" routine...looked at the clouds, birds, other buildings, etc. I wanted to close the gap to at least 20 feet before making eye contact and waving. But as I swung my head around to catch a glimpse of how close we were, she started crossing the street, and moved along without a wave. Now I worry that I snubbed her, and she'll tell her colleagues I'm rude.

I guess I can't win. So again, what is the appropriate distance to acknowledge someone, and do you wave, say hello, or both?