W. W. M. M. D.

I discovered today that I'm one of those people I whine about.

I drive Noah to school every morning, and there are 5 volunteer greeters out there to get the kids out of the cars and in the door. He's been going to that school since the middle of first grade, and it's been basically the same 5 women every day for 3 school years. I don't know any of their names, but I recognize their faces and where they usually stand.

At the beginning of this school year, I started to notice that the woman on the end closest to the exit was looking smaller than she had in May. At first, I thought it was just me projecting my weight obsession onto her, but as time went on I started noticing that her clothes were too big. Then there were clothes she didn't wear anymore. Today, I noticed that the wrinkle between her chin and her neck was more pronounced. By the looks of things, she's either wearing much more flattering clothes and has had a facelift, or she's lost 30-40 lbs. Either way, she looks a lot better.

I know that she would probably enjoy a compliment on the weight loss, but I can't seem to make myself say anything. For one thing, I don't know this woman very well. I only see her for a few seconds on weekdays, and usually it's while passing her in my car. I don't know her name, and while I'm pretty sure it's the same woman as last year, I'm not 100%. She's one of two greeter women that look really similar, though the other one is still heavy. What if I said, "have you lost weight?" and got an "Um, no. And who are you?" Or what if she had a serious illness over the summer?

"Have you lost weight?"
"Yes, I spent my entire summer in the hospital with *insert life-threatening disease here*. Thanks for bringing up that painful memory, kind stranger."

Not to mention the time issue. There's a line of cars unloading kids behind me, and I hate to hold up the line by stopping to compliment her on weight loss that may or may not be my imagination.

So I don't say anything, but I feel like I should. It's gotten so that it's the same sort of guilt I feel when I'm in the front of the line at the traffic light next to the homeless guy with the "throat cancer" sign. Does he really have throat cancer? And does it matter? I don't roll down the window and give him a dollar, but I feel like a better person would.

What do you think I should do with this woman? What would Miss Manners do?