The Big W-T-F

This past weekend I spent a little time taking my favorite form of transportation to NYC for a lovely weekend of seeing college friends, making new ones, and rehashing old drinking habits with my friend Elizabeth. I tend to equate Midtown Manhattan with a mosh pit at a Slayer concert, though my enjoyment of said pits does not extend to tourists, who flock to Times Square like ants to a sugar cube. When you bunch a whole mess of people up like that, you're bound to find that not everyone can be the breath of fresh awesome you'd like them to be. Case in point: Rude People.

Those of you that know me even the tiniest bit have probably come to understand my opinion of Rude People (RP). When I'm sitting on a train/plane/automobile and someone decides to have a loud phone conversation pretty much next to my head, I become a tad irritated. If an individual is kind enough to hold the door open for me, I pay it forward and do the same for someone else. If a tourist decides to stop in the middle of the sidewalk, without the courtesy of moving to the side, I usually plow right into them. Overnight bags go flying and I feel like I must shout horribly obscene words at them in all the languages I know (basic high school French and a decent grasp of English. Spanish optional.) just so they grasp the level of my irritation. If people are prone to rudeness no matter what, why be nice without acknowledgment?

Lynne Truss, writer of Talk to the Hand, believes that we live in a world filled with individual bubbles. Y'know back in middle school when someone would gesture around themselves and shout "personal bubble" whenever you got too close? Apparently that's the case with all humans; acknowledging the existence of someone else's good deed automatically puts us in a situation with others obsessed with their own bubble blowing.

What does this have to do with being amongst the lazy souls who gather spiderwebs while their peers are eagerly gathering in entry-level salaries (aka me...)? Simple: common courtesy. I can easily say that at every interview I have shaken a hand, given a smile, said please and thank you, been well prepared, etc... but as you leave, the impression you make is based on your ability to pop bubbles.

I only hope that the next interview I go on involves Bazooka rather than Trident...those minty bubbles can be a bitch.