Stilettos, Stoli & Scribbles ~ Served With A Twist

Good morning and Happy Monday. You’ll notice the lack of exclamation point this week. Not even the usual vats o’caffeine are doing it for me today. I’ve started three blog posts before this one, which should give you a good indication of the quality of what follows here. I apologize in advance.

I’m tired. I got next-to-no-sleep last night. I kept waking up, thinking I was already late for work. (I think I need a vacation.) Perhaps I am a wee bit cranky, but why the hell is everyone around here yelling?

You see, I work in an office, my part of which has three and a half walls and no ceiling. One of those walls is shared with another department. Sound carries. Most days I can tune out everyone on the other side of the wall, including Loud Guy as he regales whomever is on the other end of the telephone line with a minute by minute recap of his weekend or the details of some family member’s last surgery. Today, however, they are all working my last nerve.

We live in an age in which people roam the streets, sit in public places, even those designated as quiet zones, all while carrying on private conversations at a volume best reserved for private places. Somewhere around the time the portable phone became both ubiquitous and mandatory, it became acceptable to subject other people to a non-stop barrage of one-sided conversations containing the minutia of our everyday lives. A lot of people not only consider it acceptable, but an inalienable right. Have you ever asked someone, politely of course, to perhaps take the volume down a notch? I imagine the responses you’ve gotten range from a dirty look to a string of creative expletives.

Child psychologists will tell you that these people just wants to be noticed. (Duh) They get attention when people look at them or ask them to be quiet. Negative attention is better than no attention at all. *eyeroll*

All of that to say that maybe because I spend more time amongst these compulsive over-sharers, thanks to city living and public transportation, I am less inclined to put up with it in the workplace, where I have to have telephone conversations of my own or perhaps need to concentrate on a task. The least they could do is talk about something interesting.

Oh well, I think I’ll go heat up my coffee and ask Loud Guy about Aunt Minnie’s hip.

How is your Monday so far? Anything working your nerves today or are you an island of tranquility in a sea of chaos? In any case, I hope you have a great week!