The Daily Grind

I really don't mind public cell usage, to say that I did would make me a hypocrite on a fairly large scale. There are times when it is quite rude, say for instance, in line getting coffee or in a job interview, but in general I find people to at least try to be discreet. Now occasionly there are moments when one needs to take or make a call on the CTA, to arrange a meeting place, or change your estimated time of arrival, these things are expected and swell if you try to hold the conversation on the DL, but what really gets my goat is That Chick. The one who's on the cell at the platform, gets in the train, sits down, and continues with out missing a beat "oh my god, get out, no way! Holly crap, he did, wtf! That is so not cool, oh my god, no way, so anyway, we were at High Tops, and he was totally hitting on this total whore, and I was all like wtf man, and I just started dancing and messing around with this other guy, and he was all like wtf? Anyway, blah, blah, blah...." For the entire commute fellow passengers are subjected to this crap conversation, and That Chick carries on as if we should somehow feel privileged to be a part of her social drama. In my head, I have this vision of my normal tolerant non-violent self wacking her repeatedly in the shoulder with her cell, yelling shut-up, shut-up, shut-up, in reality, I try my best to ignore the sound reminiscent of nails scraping on the chalk board. If I have to listen to your conversation, for once I wish it would be something really cool, I want to to hear about some great upcoming show that hasn't been announced yet, or some fantastic book you just read, some amazing movie, or some other event that is going to make me glad you disrupted the Sarah Vowell book I was reading! If you must carry on a conversation while riding public transportation, let the CTA be your platform to share some useful information with your fellow riders, have a conversation we actually want to evesdrop in on, and thank you for riding the CTA.