The thirteenth day...

Why is it that some people can’t seem to hear how loud their own voices are? There was a group of five co-workers on the train this morning. Three sat to the right of me, and two women sat across the aisle from them. One of the women across the aisle seemed to think that the rest of her party was actually sitting a few cars back – or maybe she thought that she had accidentally left them in the station – because her voice continually reached the ear-piercingly loud level. What decibel level is that? Harpy?

Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand the need for a person to speak up a little at times on the train. There’s a lot of background noise to overcome; but I was diagonal to her for 10 stops and my ear is still ringing. I feel sorry for the guy that was sitting next to her who actually had to get up and move to stand at the end of the car halfway through the ride. I would feel differently if she seemed to have a naturally loud and high pitched voice, but she didn’t. There were times (too few and far between) when she used her ‘indoor voice’, but then she would get riled up again and turn into Siryn. She was engaged in a rather heated argument with one of her across-the-aisle co-workers and, even though the train was nowhere near packed, she decided that the only way to get her point across was to shout it out. She kept inching forward on her seat and screaming about (1) if and when a fax was ever received, (2) who picked up the fax if it was, in fact received, and (3) how, she absolutely refused to believe that the fax was ever received even though all of her co-workers continually tries to let her know that the information was actually e-mailed instead of faxed, and that the e-mail was received. I was on the edge of my seat to find out who actually received the e-mail; but either they didn’t say, or the ringing in my ears prevented me from hearing the vital information.

Anyway, back to that same problem project at work. Hello, another long workday.

Picture enjoyment time...

This is the sign that the one of the vendors around my job puts up when he's on lunch or just doesn't want to be disturbed. From the people I see walking away when they see it, I think it might be costing him some business.