My First Real Blog

While talking to a co-worker today, I recalled an incident last week that I had wanted to blog about. Actually, it was Ed who first suggested that I blog about it but that was probably so I would stop ranting and raving to him. Hence, my first true blog and it probably ranks at #1 on my list of Things that Irritate Me: Rude People.

Lately, it seems that they are all over. While sitting at Lauren's National Honor Society ceremony last week, I was astounded at the number of people, sitting in the audience, who were oblivious to the fact that someone on stage was speaking. Were these people suffering from a profound hearing loss and that is why they continued to carry on their own private conversations? No, I don't think so. I think they were just rude. Or clueless. Or both.

If it hadn't been for the fact that I had already changed my seat one time previously -to avoid another rude person - I would have gotten up in the middle of the ceremony and changed my seat again so I could avoid the man sitting behind me, who spoke to his wife non-stop during the ceremony. I don't think she was even interested in what he was talking about, but maybe she wasn't rude enough to tell him to shut up. I wanted to find a new seat, but that would have been .... rude.

A month ago, when I went to see John Jay's musical, I was astounded at how well-behaved the audience around me seemed to me. No gum-chewing, no talking, no singing-along and not even any snoring. At intermission, I noted to Laura how I lucked out with my seat. Little did I know that I had spoken too soon. Ten minutes into the second act, I heard the first crinkle. It sounded way too loud to be a candy wrapper. And then, another crinkle. My crinkle radar was now on high alert. For the next 10 minutes, there was a constant, loud crinkling noise behind me. Sometimes it was a solo crinkle, other times, it was a symphony of crinkles. My friend Vicky looked at me and asked "What is that?"

When I turned around to investigate, I saw the woman behind me to my left scorning at the teenager next to her. The teenager, who was craddling a plastic bottle of water, was mesmerized by the show and apparently, unaware that each time she flexed her hand, the bottle crinkled. Loudly. And with each flex of the hand, the bottle crinkled more loudly until finally, the words blurted from my mouth "Excuse me - would you please stop with the water bottle?" She responded with a nod of the head and the crinkling mostly ceased. In this instance, I think it was more a case of the teenager being clueless. Or hearing-impaired. Or somehow, mesmerized by the lackluster songs and lyrics of Titanic (but that's another blog).

So, why is it that people nowadays in public places are so rude and/or clueless? Why do they think it is ok to talk when someone else is talking, pop and smack gum during movies, unwrap candy at Broadway shows and butt into other people's private conversations?

Like the woman at Chicago a few months ago, who upon hearing me say to Lisa that Ashley Simpson needed to learn how to act, launched into a dissertation about people like myself, who had no idea how difficult it was to act and how easy I thought it was to perform on stage. So, to you Rude Broadway Lady, I say "who invited you into my conversation?" Who asked for your unsolicited comments and what made you think it was OK to launch into a sermon and tell me I didn't know what I was talking about?

Nevertheless, kudos to Rude Broadway Lady's daughter, who tried to stifle her mother. Maybe the daughter was embarrassed or maybe she realized just how rude her mother was acting. Or maybe she just agreed with me that Ashley Simpson really can't act. LOL