I wrote this on yesterday's ride home. I was tired and grouchy.
The beautiful thing about people with cell phones on the train is being able to hear every single thing they say, whether I want to or not. I've tried a number of unsuccessful techniques to block them out, like:
1. closing my eyes and sleeping
2. immersing myself in a book
3. plugging my ears and singing Uncle Kracker's cover of "Drift Away" to myself
Oh, give me the beat, boys, and free my soul
I want to get lost in your rock and roll
And drift away
This became exceedingly difficult as folks attempted to talk over the train's rumble and I forgot the rest of the song. I surrender. Since they're here and I'm not going anywhere, I might as well write about it.
From the moment I sat down, a businessman has been speaking loudly into the back of my head. He's not happy with John, who apparently gave a prospective client overly conservative specifications. The entire deal may be lost. From the sounds of it, John won't be having fun tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the guy in front of me will miss dinner on Saturday because his friend from Dallas is visiting and needs to be picked up from the airport. I'm tempted to remind him to get there early. Traffic around the airport can be horrendous.
For the girl across the aisle, the train is simply moving too slow. She seems to dismiss every suggestion with a sarcastic "Ookay!" She also can't understand why the party must be this Saturday. Everybody knows she has an early tee time on Sunday.
Another woman is pointedly telling someone (from her tone, it must be her husband) they can't afford to let his sister mooch off of them any longer. The sister has no job, wants them to buy her a car and watches too much Dr. Phil. Of course, by definition, any Phil is too much Phil.
Oh, thank goodness, my stop has arrived.
3 Comments
Don't fight the force. You're quite right, cell phone users aren't going anywhere so you might as well start enjoying their conversations. I tend to provide my own internal responses when I am forced to listen to others' conversations, that way things aren't so one-sided anymore. Of course, the more wacky and expletive-laden your responses, the more fun the conversation!
Most of the phone conversations that I hear on the train go something like: "Oh, I just reached such and such stop. I'll be there soon."
The most "interesting" conversation I heard was this ghetto-ish asian teenage boy yapping on the phone complaining about how he had to spend $50 to buy some F-ing flowers for his girlfriend for such and such occasion. I was amused.
Internal replies sound like fun. I'll just have to make sure none of them accidentally slip out. :P
A majority of the calls I hear are ETA-related. The "interesting" conversations are the most amusing ones, but they also make me the most uncomfortable, which is why I try so hard to block them out.