Maybe Wearing Earbuds All the Time Isn't Such a Bad Idea

This happened yesterday evening, and I didn't write about it, though all three of these overheard conversations are still on my mind.

I was at Subway, eating, and this obnoxious man, and his young son walked in. He had the most nasal voice ever, and everything he said was neurotic, and repetitive. He was like a not funny Larry David, which is scary if you think about that.

The boy didn't want onions, but he accidentally got onions, and the father was like, "I'm sorry, is it the end of the world? So shoot me." He spoke aloud about he cannot believe the sandwich cost $8 (it was a footlong) and then he got on the topic of the following day's Earth Day.

He spoke with his son about how salmon is so good, but there will be none of it left soon, and other fish are disappearing, too. He actually used the word crap, and said that the Earth has gone to crap, and it is because of his generation, and the one before it, that there will be nothing left, and good luck, because it will be the job of his son, and his sons friend to save it, but it might be too late.

By then I was shaking in anger, biting my tongue as not to butt in on something not my business. My back was to this man, and his son, as they were sitting behind me, but I was almost hyperventilating inside, thinking who says that??? The boy was probably no more than five or six years old.

Prior to that man and son, a very hurried commercial real estate leasing guy had walked in, and he was on his cell phone the entire time, which is how I knew he's in real estate.

He was talking buddy buddy with someone that almost sounded like a friend, but then it became very clear it was a client on the other line.

They were talking sports before the guy shifted, and mentioned that they will need the new lease on June 1st. There was some talk, then a bit of a pause, where the guy said, "I'm so sorry."

As he's saying "I'm sorry," he's also saying which ingredients he wants on his sub. It became clear the guy on the other end of the line had lost his business, or lost something big, because he wouldn't be resigning in June.

Then, the guy on the phone says, "No, no they are sticklers. you'd have to be out on the first or by the first, sorry man, I'm so sorry."

At this point he really did sound sorry, and very shocked. He was still talking to the guy on the other end of the line, and gathering change from the Subway person behind the register at the same time.

So, I sat in Subway long enough to read the paper, and do my homework, thus I was naturally ready for a Twix bar from the gas station on the walk home. As I was looking at the candy bars, the gas station attendant behind the counter was being screamed at by a man who was saying that he was given the wrong scratch off ticket. I don't recall the name of the ticket because the names are always so absurd, but he was yelling something like, "I wanted a Lucky Egg Hunt Bonanza and you gave me an Egg Hunt Max. You didn't give me the right ticket!"

Of course it had only been AFTER he scratched the ticket, and lost, that he began his tirade against the gas station attendant, who was refusing to give him a free ticket over the apparent miscommunication, which had probably been a desperate ploy by a desperate person attempting to win big on a scratch off.