Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Commuter Love

I am casually sitting on a crowded commuter train with people standing in the aisles. The trains are like this every morning, but usually they are pretty silent aside from the rumble of the train moving on the tracks and the occasional announcement of an upcoming station. This morning I get to sit next to 2 people arguing in the aisle and they don't even know each other.
As any regular commuter on this line knows, you kinda get over people being in your personal space. The trains jostle everyone around, people stumble, people with backpacks on forget how much space they take up, we're all in this together and USUALLY you hear apologies and everyone helps each other out.

On this morning, a lady stumbles and steps on a man's foot with her heels. He is startled, rubs his foot and says, "Man, those heels hurt!" And so it begins. She calls him a 'baby', he spouts off about manners, she says she almost fell, would he rather her fall? The man wants her to acknowledge his pain and maybe she could apologize, she tells him to drive if he can't handle crowded trains. This continues for about 5 minutes. Then all is quiet again. Oh but then a seat nearby opens up. She turns to him and says, "Hey baby, you can go sit down now". And thus it starts up again. He's trying to ignore her, but she actually gets in his face to yell at him, bending down when he does, walks around him when he turns away.
As we finally pull into the first San Francisco station, they both appear to be trying to get off the train. She turns around snarling at him, and she runs into the door and bangs her head on a metal bar. He's not the only one to smile as half of the car catches what just happened. And now, she's yelling at him again, following him down the platform running around to yell at him to his face. As the train pulls out of the station, the people in the car who had the pleasure to catch the show, start chatting about what just happened. "Someone's having a bad day!" I say.

These two people appeared to be professional adults, at least by their dress. They looked to be your average financial district worker who just want to get their work week started. I'm sure neither got up this morning with the desire to piss someone off today but they did. Whether intentional or not (well, she was obviously intentionally workin' it). But they aren't the only ones affected by their actions. We all had to witness it. I wanted to get up to leave but there was no where to go. I wanted him to leave so she would shut up, but she egged him on to move to another car, so of course he couldn't. I've seen a lot of different behaviors on these trains in the 8 years I've been commuting, but the audacity of this encounter really takes it.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The way this played out, I think they are both lucky someone didn't get a black eye.

Beenzzz said...

What a bunch of psychos...especially the woman. Obviously that was some drug induced paranoia/agression festival. Weird stuff happens for sure!

Anonymous said...

That sounds like a lousy way for everyone to start the day. Weird behavior for sure.

J said...

I was thrilled when she bonked her head. :) I wish he had made a clean getaway, poor guy. I mean, maybe he was an ass as well, but geez lady, back off.

~Donna~ said...

Behavior like that is one reason I will definitely not miss commuting. Sometimes I wish I had the balls to tell off people like that, but then it would just get them going all over again...so what's the point. Just wait until the weather really heats up...it's just going to get worse.

Anonymous said...

Good grief. Couldn't she have said I am really sorry. I don't understand people today. Everything revolves around self these days. Sorry you had to witness that..

Karen MEG said...

How awkward was that! She deserved that conk on the head - a simple sorry would have done. Her "baby" comment was typical of something a bratty kindergartener would say in the playground. Unreal to see that behaviour from an "adult".

Gina said...

Yup, count me as another one who cheered when she hit her head.

She sounds like a total bitch.

Oh, and Cherry, I forgot to say it in my previous comment, but I am keeping you in my thoughts!

Ginger said...

I can just picture this girl, too. Wanting to show her superiority and how she can compete in a man's world. This shows what women give up when they sacrifice there feminity. If she had just apologized for hurting the guy the whole thing would probably have been avoided.