Thanks for sharing

No, ma’am. It wasn’t your facial hair. Nor was it your morbid obesity. These things I can look past.

You didn’t hoard any seats, spit, or litter. I’m pretty sure you flashed a Fast Pass and took your seat, not refusing to move to the back of a crowded coach like so many of your fellow riders.

No, your offense was perhaps more egregious: You treated us all, a peaceful bunch of weekday morning 31-Balboa riders, to an exclusive, VIP performance of … your phone conversation with a friend. Loud and clear, thank you.

It was so wonderfully annoying, really, the way you neglected to shield your loud mouth from us. Otherwise we might not have been privy to all those glorious details of your home and social life.

Unless it’s an emergency, or you can keep it brief and quiet, put your phone away.

– Jeff

Jeff has heard his fair share of excuses.

3 comments

  • tara

    If someone’s getting details about something urgent, such as evening plans or meeting places (and doing it quietly), I don’t care. But I’ve got a similar, also annoying, story of someone who also broke those rules.

    Also on a 31, a woman whipped out her phone and started gossiping about a friend’s love life, and about how she had an annoying day at work, blah blah blah. It was a 7 p.m. with a beverage conversation, not a crowded bus convo, for sure.

    THEN HER BOSS CALLS (and I know this because she tells her friend she has to go because it’s her boss), and proceeds to have an HR conversation about her “integrity” and why she made a decision she did, and why she didn’t tell her boss something.

    My solution is to stare at the person the whole time. If they get testy and wonder what you’re looking at, say you assumed they were putting on a show.

  • Jenny

    The staring NEVER works for me. I think people feel invisible when they’re on the phone.

    Does Muni need a no-cellphone policy? I have a feeling it would be as effective as the no-drink and no-food policy – both unheeded.

    Maybe we should all just be more vocal and tell people to shut up from time to time. My strategy: throw on the headphones.

  • ha! yeah, headphones do the trick — sometimes. but some mouths are so loud and insistent that they’ll supersede your tunes.

    i don’t think we need a no-cellphone policy, though. in a perfect world, i’d chase the issue upstream and simply work on people’s awareness of their surroundings. in this imperfect world, i like the idea of bitching to friends about it … and posting on this site, natch.

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