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Sep. 25th, 2012 09:32 amIt must have been Bring Your Eccentricities To Work day on the train this morning.
This guy got on at Addison, the stop after mine, set himself up in the space between doors where there's room to move, and just started dancing. I ignored him, mainly because he wasn't any good. I'll watch people do strange things on the train if they're good at them, like the woman who was doing acrobatics on the handrails a while back, but if they're not particularly good at what they do I figure they're either a) doing it for themselves or mentally ill, in which case it would be rude to stare, or b) doing it to get attention, in which case I don't want to encourage them.
He got off two stops later, but as he did another guy got on, sat in front of me in the accessible seats so that he was directly in my eyeline, and proceeded to start talking to me.
I used to hate this, especially because usually it only happened when I had already been having a bad day. Now I don't mind it so much -- I think it's incredibly rude, but I do love the look of naked shock on their faces when I say "I'm sure you're a nice person, but I don't want to talk to you" and they realise that they are not nearly as interesting to other people as they think they are. Almost makes it worth it.
(I realise that this is a huge problem for women, who get way more abuse for refusing to engage, and I sympathise; no matter how you slice it, talking to random people on the train is pretty presumptuous. If you're that bored, bring a book like the people who don't want to talk to strangers do. Nobody owes you their attention on a train.)
Then after I said that some other random person spent the next four stops staring at me. I can't figure out if they were trying to make out the book I was reading or were just shocked someone did that or what.
I swear I'm going to make a book cover that says FUCK OFF I'M READING and put it on every book I bring with me on public transit.
This guy got on at Addison, the stop after mine, set himself up in the space between doors where there's room to move, and just started dancing. I ignored him, mainly because he wasn't any good. I'll watch people do strange things on the train if they're good at them, like the woman who was doing acrobatics on the handrails a while back, but if they're not particularly good at what they do I figure they're either a) doing it for themselves or mentally ill, in which case it would be rude to stare, or b) doing it to get attention, in which case I don't want to encourage them.
He got off two stops later, but as he did another guy got on, sat in front of me in the accessible seats so that he was directly in my eyeline, and proceeded to start talking to me.
I used to hate this, especially because usually it only happened when I had already been having a bad day. Now I don't mind it so much -- I think it's incredibly rude, but I do love the look of naked shock on their faces when I say "I'm sure you're a nice person, but I don't want to talk to you" and they realise that they are not nearly as interesting to other people as they think they are. Almost makes it worth it.
(I realise that this is a huge problem for women, who get way more abuse for refusing to engage, and I sympathise; no matter how you slice it, talking to random people on the train is pretty presumptuous. If you're that bored, bring a book like the people who don't want to talk to strangers do. Nobody owes you their attention on a train.)
Then after I said that some other random person spent the next four stops staring at me. I can't figure out if they were trying to make out the book I was reading or were just shocked someone did that or what.
I swear I'm going to make a book cover that says FUCK OFF I'M READING and put it on every book I bring with me on public transit.
