The train can be a rough – rough place – sometimes. By rough – I am looking straight at you Mister “Carry-on-business-after-hours-on-the-train”, or the pack of giggling/chortling/screaming “We-just-stopped-to-have-a-couple-of-drinks-after-work-seriously-just-a-couple”, or possibly all of the “Our-team-won-let’s-yell-because-our-team-won-and-because-our-team-is
-the-best-at- winning-because-they-won”, teenage mob – okay – well you just frighten me – and I beg that you never direct your teenage-mob-power in my direction and most importantly – and most infuriating – the people with the walkie-talkie (gleeck-gleeck) phones who insist on having the following conversation – over and over:
** gleeck-gleeck **
YO!
** gleeck-gleeck **
Where (garble garble) at?
** gleeck-gleeck **
The train . . . On the train . . .
** gleeck-gleeck **
(garble garble) doing?
** gleeck-gleeck **
Just on the train . . .
** gleeck-gleeck **
(garble garble garble)
** gleeck-gleeck **
What? Hello . . . Hello . . . Hello??? This thing (is) busted . . .
And then they put the phone away – only to relive the exciting conversation – sometimes multiple times during their ride. It is a thrilling thing to be part of – seemingly every time that I hop on a train . . .
Oh – and screaming baby . . . I just plain out feel bad for you – screaming baby – I would scream too – if I was on the train (as a baby) this late in the night . . .
Anyway – those are just some of the fun people that dig under my skin – and hop onto my last nerve during my long sojourns into and out of the city . . . and it was all starting to drive me batty . . . and then I saw the answer. People were wearing earplugs.
The next day – I went to the store – and the world is a totally different place. The sounds are still there (I am guessing) – but to me – they are just whispers in the night . . . gleeck-gleeck’s that will never touch my tender little ears.
So – now – thoroughly ensconced in my auditory cocoon . . . I ride the train – reading my books and drawing my pictures with a smile . . . becoming more and more cut off and isolated from the world around me as each day passes me by.
A good thing? Probably not – but at least it’ll hold me over – until I can get an iPhone – and completely cut the rest of the world out . . . let’s have a party then – okay?!
Oh boy – oh boy – everybody . . . check this out . . . my pal Clunky Robot (the guy there with the beard) and his pal (pal of my pal) Lil’ Tamo (the silver one with the springy arms) got written about in the weekly Atlanta paper know around those parts as Creative Loafing. It was an interview – with questions – that have answers – and my only complaint is that there weren’t enough (any) questions directed to Lil’ Tamo . . . but I am a sucker for that kind of stuff – and thereby hold my opinion as skewed.