Update #33 [The Silence Sounds Grand.]

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?!