So, on a recommendation from a friend, I decided to use my time on the ferry this morning to tune in, rather than out, to the people around me. So, I whipped out the baby blanket that I’m currently crocheting for that same friend and I tune in. Now, usually, I slam my head directly into a book and pay no attention whatsoever to anyone around me at all. I mean, like, if someone were to drop dead right next to me, I wouldn’t know about it. So tuning in took some effort for me to do. But I gathered some interesting things about the folks around me simply be eavesdropping on their conversations.
The first thing that stands out to me is the tinny sounds of roughly 50 different people blasting their ipods to different tunes interspersed with the rustling of various newspapers. People are just getting settled into their seats and such. Then the conversations begin. It seems like a lot of people have formed these little cliques that they travel in all the time, at least to and from work. Ferry buddies, of a sort, I guess. Most of these were mumblers and I couldn’t really hear much from them. But then I hit the jackpot.
These two chicks sat directly behind me and they were luckily loud talkers. And lord, did they have problems. One of them started off talking about school and how she thinks she’s going to fail her economics class. Then her friend starts talking about some creepy guy she goes to school with who is stalking her. Like waits for her after class and has memorized her schedule so he knows where she’s going to be. She said that he even texted her one time asking why she was leaving a particular building so late after class had ended. That’d be enough for me to have gotten the old restraining order paperwork going, but apparently she thinks he’s a little cute, so she’ll put up with it.
Speaking of putting up with it, chick # 1 thinks her man is cheating on her and she’s almost caught him at it. “If only I can get all his text messages forwarded to my phone too.” She and her friend briefly consider if this is a breach of privacy and if Verizon would go for such a ploy. They think not. So she’s moved on to signing onto his AIM and waiting to see if any of those “other ho’s” are gonna try talking to him. Cause she was ready to give them a piece of her mind. And those are just the ones she KNOWS about!
So, bottom line, all my eavesdropping got me thinking. Thinking how lucky I am to not be currently worrying about failing, being stalked, cheating boyfriends and the conundrum of how far is too far when it comes to electronic snooping. My boring little life sounds downright picture-perfect when I think about it in comparison. But be warned, for all intents and purposes, I’m just some innocent spiky-haired chick crocheting a baby blanket on the ferry. But make no mistakes: I’m listening to you.