Month Seventeen

I don't have much to add to the latest NY update, but here's a list of people I hate in no particular order:

1. The person who is in a massive hurry to get into a subway car, but doesn't pick the nearest one to the stairs for some stupid reason. I've seen cars with plenty of seats where someone bypasses them for some other, apparently "better" car. And I've seen people miss the train because of it. And even worse, I've seen people delay the train because they didn't get through the doors all the way.

2. There are reasons to leave one subway car and go to another (one is to find the car that will be closest to the set of stairs that you need at whatever stop you come to), but some people randomly get up and go to another, usually the neighboring, car for absolutely no reason.

3. The person who sits on the aisle seat on a bus, leaving the window seat, especially on a crowded bus. This is a passive-aggressive move, because most people won't bother to ask someone to get up or move over in order to obtain the empty seat. This goes double for the mall shopper who decides to put all their bags in the empty seat.

4. Friends who sit on opposite sides of the subway car and have loud conversations, even when there's plenty of room to sit next to each other. This goes double for foreign-language speakers.

5. Kids who do chin-ups on the handle bars of the subway.

6. The guy who listens to death metal so loud through his earphones, everyone on the bus can hear it.

7. Sidewalk follies: I hate the mother who stops to adjust something on their kid's stroller, and I change my walking trajectory to pass them, only to have that mother be done with whatever and then suddenly walk right beside me. I hate parallel walkers. Either be ahead or be behind. This goes for anyone who stops in the middle of the sidewalk for whatever stupid reason. And people who are handicapped, under no circumstance, should walk out of a building in front of someone who has a good pace. They do it all the time, though. They're handicapped so we have to feel sorry for them even when they're being jerks I guess.

8. The guy at a sports bar who claps for his team every time something good happens. These people don't realize that applause is an action expressing approval to someone who can hear it. And a small clap, like one clap, is OK, because it's a reaction. But you get these people who clap about ten times, and I sit there going, "You know Derek Jeter can't hear that, right? And you realize that no one else in the bar cares that you're a Yankees fan, right?" Same goes for movies, unless people who actually did something with the movie is in attendance.

9. The race card has become absolutely laughable. I hear it almost every time. The other day, a black woman came on my subway car to yell at an Asian woman for "putting her hands on" her. The Asian girl was like, "What the hell?" and then they proceeded to swing at each other. Black woman: Oh, now everyone's going to be concerned about her because she's Asian. Uh...yeah, because Asians are so much better treated in society. Doesn't it occur to anyone that when they make such a display, they look absolutely, totally bonkers? I don't care what happened in the past; it's the same thing that happens on retaliation plays in the NFL and NHL. But it didn't sound like anything worth fighting for, anyway. Ridiculous nonsense. This is why racism continues to perpetuate. And by the way, racism is as prevalent in New York as anywhere else. Blue state indeed.

Anyway, things are well. I'll continue updating each month.