You might recall my story of commuter A. If you don’t, and you would like to, please refer to this blogpost. It will help you follow this post. Commuting has its rough moments, but my hope is that by writing this one you will all empathize with me or at least laugh a little.
So commuter A and B were sitting in front us on the bus on Friday. We hoped that by facing forward most of their utterances and volume would be directed away from us. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. I tried my best to focus on my Squaredle. I should have put my headphones in, but there was nothing I wanted to listen to. Their conversation was quickly in full swing. They raced through many topics–all of which commuter A had either an opinion on or a self-confessed mastery of. My focus was good and I only heard snippets until commuter B left the bus. I had finished my Squaredle by that time and had moved onto my book.
Since this was Friday, the bus was less than full and commuter A didn’t have anyone sitting next to him to keep him from sprawling out all over the seat. This seemed to give him opportunity to look around and potentially start a conversation with….I am pretty sure he was going to pick me. I could sense it. I could also dread it, and I started to form a reply that would have started with “didn’t you already talk enough with James (the real first name of commuter B)?” or “I’m not James and I really don’t want to talk to you.” Actually, my response was a little less polite, but since it was in my head (at that point) I feel okay about making it seem less dramatic. Perhaps because I didn’t take my eyes off my book and perhaps because my groan was slightly audible even over the roar of the bus engine, he elected not to talk to me at that point.
Nearing the end of that leg of the journey, when my girlfriend and I were organizing our stuff to change modes of transportation, he struck again…or at least tried to. He turned his body to make eye contact again. He scanned both our faces and must have been put off by our lethal grimaces.
When we were safely aboard the subway, my girlfriend turned to me and asked if I had noticed him trying to talk to us. We spent a few minutes discussing the events of the morning. It turns out that we were both aware and were both unwilling to talk to him. She had formed a rather strong response as well. We don’t want him thinking we are his second conversation group and we certainly wouldn’t want to set a precedent, would we?
Today's Perfect Moment 