I absolutely love city living! The greatest part of living in the city to me is the people watching. Whether I am walking the Magnificent mile, taking advantage of the Chicago Transit Authority or taking in some rays by the lake, there is no shortage of awesome sights to be seen. While I think of myself as a very positive person, there are many things that I just don’t understand while watching people, almost to the point of frustration. Much of my people watching is done on the bus, as that is my main mode of transportation. Confined, public spaces are always Primo people watching.

• I have never been one to wear a baseball cap, so I am not familiar with why people leave the stickers on them, but that makes more sense to me than the actual tag. Why would you leave the tag on? Do you want everyone to see how much you paid for hat? Haha, makes me think of a skit from Key and Peele. Maybe it has something to do with this?

• It is a common courtesy that if you are an agile person sitting on the bus and an elderly person or pregnant woman come on, you give up your seat to them. Not only do I not get it, but it is a major pet peeve of mine when an elderly person gets on and (a) women stand up to give their seats when men are just sitting watching or (b) the elderly person is struggling to gain balance on the moving bus (appearing like they might fall over) and grown men are sitting watching. I have an incredibly soft spot in my heart for the elderly and the thought of one falling over is just sad.  So fragile.  What it comes down to is men sitting and watching = not okay with me.

• In this day in age we know how cell phones work. We know that technology has really done marvelous things, so that when your ear is to the phone, the screen turns off so that you don’t hang up on the caller or dial random numbers. Phone creators have also made it so that while your ear is on the phone you can talk and the speaker can still pick up your voice. What bothers me is when people mistake a phone for a walkie talkie. When people listen to what the caller is saying with their ear to the phone and then has to put the speaker to their mouth and talk. While this is annoying to watch, it definitely has to be annoying to the person on the receiving end. Obviously if the person has the phone to their mouth talking, they can’t hear the other person chiming in (like a normal conversation) and they can’t possibly hear the person say, “hey I have to call you back really quick”. I feel people who talk with their phone to their mouth has a lot to say and rather not hear what anyone else says. Yes, this is a generalization, but I believe it to be true.

• If you have to cough, cover your mouth! Who coughs into the air on a crowded bus? That is not only disgusting, but it is also putting people in close proximity at risk. Risk for cold, or whatever this rude person has that causes them to cough so much that they can’t cover their mouth.  The same goes with sneezing.  Eww!  Just in case you forgot how I feel about sneezing… What’s Cable Worse Than Ughh, speaking of sneezing, I do hate if people sneeze in their hand and then touch things that others need to touch (door, rail, hand grip thing).  You can imagine my face when I see these people (imagine smelling something awful and shaking head in disapproval).
  

• When you ride the bus and your stop is coming up, you pull the cord located along the left or right side of the bus. When this is done you sometimes hear a noise indicating the stop has been requested. Many times if you don’t hear the noise, you can look at the screen on the bus that shows the time, date and street titles and there you will also see “Stop has been requested”. What I don’t understand is when people (a) repeatedly pull hard on the cord, as if the harder they pull, the more noise will sound or (b) people use this cord to help them stand up. Hmm, I thought the rails and the hand grips were for helping the elderly people. It’s not like anyone gets that comfortable in these public bus seats. They don’t recline and you can’t sink down in them. I didn’t know it was that hard to stand up. The people who tend to use the cord to stand up seem to be very trusting, because I wouldn’t trust that cord even with my weight.

• Most times when I am on the bus I have my ear-buds in and eyes on pinterest, but there are those few times when I want to be more aware of my surroundings and decide not to listen to music. Why is it that some people choose to have the most inappropriate and loud telephone conversations on the bus? I guess these people have inappropriate conversations all the time and don’t really care where they are or what people think, but sometimes it is shocking how open people are in public. “Yeah, so he played with my son at McDonald’s, so I had to return the favor. Girl you know I’m not try’n to get pregnant again… he sho did. HA, you trippin, not in my hair, I won’t even let him touch my hair. He called a few days ago at like 2AM, so I had my moms watch him. That ain’t nothing but a thing, he pays her child support.  Yeah, she still lives there… so what, she can mind her own.” (True conversation).  Everyone around knows exactly what is going on and judgment is fogging up the windows. If that is what you do in your free time, cool, but how about save that special conversation for a private moment?

• Why stare? While I am definitely taking in all the sights that I can, I do it on the sly.  I do not understand how people can just stare at someone.  Even when you make eye contact with them and give a little glare for warning, they continue.  Of course the compassionate side of me runs through different mental illnesses that may cause a person to stare like this, then my mind shifts and I think maybe I remind them of someone.  That thought gets me frustrated because I dislike when people say “you remind me of….” and I don’t look a thing like that person. Instead of getting upset, I begin flattering myself which isn’t good for anyone.  I begin to think, “well I am dressed awfully nice today, maybe they like what they see”.  I am confident to a fault sometimes.  I go through all of these emotions just because of staring.  It’s unhealthy!

• Seating is something that doesn’t come easily, especially during rush hour on the bus.  I do not understand why some people decide to sit down on the outer seat, protecting the inner seat that could provide comfort to someone.  I am claustrophobic myself, but even I can sit on the inside seat. There are so many windows, so to me I don’t think that is a good excuse.  I do understand that your stop might be coming up, but if that is the case just stand up.  It bothers me when you ask “is that seat taken” and they get an attitude.  Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot that was your personal seat that you were saving for your bag.  Ridiculous!  It’s icing on the cake when they just slide their knees to the side instead of standing to let you pass.  This is an issue for me because I am rather curvaceous in the lower region and my butt always rubs against them.  When men do this “knees to the side thing”, I almost refuse because I think they do it on purpose.  Sicko’s.

I certainly do not claim to be a rocket scientist, but these are some things I simply do not understand.  I guess everyone has their things.  Maybe some of these things you don’t understand either?  That would make me feel better 🙂