This post goes back three years... an oldie but a goodie. Reading about the subway and people this evening caused this file to come up in my brain so I'm sharing...
I must have a sign on my forehead that says "please ask me; I will help." It doesn't matter where I am, a street corner, the subway platform, even as a tourist in another city; I will be the one people approach to ask for direction or help. I don't know why but it's been like that my whole life. I've often wondered why I'm the one people approach. What makes them pick me over everyone else? Is it the look on my face? Do I look non-threatening?
Someone once said I look like I know what's going on. How does one look like that? I think it must be the energy that surrounds me. It must be very inviting. Whatever job I'm at, I'm the one that people come to for advice - as if I'm an authority on anything. I have a way of encouraging people to open up and tell me their deepest, darkest secrets and the funny thing is, I don't do anything. Somehow I instinctively ask the right questions that illuminate the crux of the problem and head them in the right direction for the answers they need. And I reiterate, I don't so anything. I feel like the guy in the Kleenex commercial with his couch set up outdoors and then random people sit down and open up with whatever is bothering them.
I guess what it comes down to is I'm a great listener. I would much rather listen most of the time than worry what I'm going to say. Not that I don't like to comment or add my two cents here or there. The only time I don't like listening is when the other person won't let me get a word in edgewise or they babble on and on without saying anything.
Now this is completely off topic but I want to bitch a moment about riding the subway. This is not an affront to mass transit but the people that ride the subway. This morning I was lucky enough to get a seat as I entered the train. I sat down next to a large person on my right. This person wasn't exceptionally large but definitely overweight. Most of the trains have these indented seats on the bench - basically to let you know where you butt is supposed to go. I think these were made this way to keep people from taking up too much room. However, this does not stop people from spilling over their allotted space. I am not condemning large people but it is very annoying when those larger individuals take up two or three spaces. What's even worse is when a big person decides they are going to sit in between two people when it's obvious they are not going to fit. They didn't get this large overnight, so how is they have no body/spatial awareness? If you are a Macy's Thanksgiving Day balloon, you're not going to fit through the Lincoln tunnel while inflated. It's simple physics.
Back to this morning...I was sitting there minding my own business when I saw this very large ass getting closer to me. This ass belonged to a very, very large person who decided they were going to fit in between me and another person in the designated tiny hiney seat. I don't know what this ass was thinking but I was trying not to get sat on. As it turned out, the ass could not fit, (duh) so the ass landed on the edge of the seat trying to keep from falling off. Wouldn't it have been better not to try to force their way in? So now I'm mushed in between two people, determined not to give up my seat because I was there first. When I finally got to my stop, I had to wedge myself out between the two large ones. Unfortunately I did not have any Vaseline. I managed to get up and as I left the subway car, sure enough, the ass sat all the way back on the bench, taking up two seats! Ah me...
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