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Thursday, January 26, 2012

My leg doubles as a cane rest. Adventures on the T.

My commute to work was interesting this morning.

My stop is near the beginning of the line so I always get a seat. Two stops later an old man with a cane gets on the train and sits down next to me. I feel something cold touching me leg. I look down and notice that the man's cane is leaning up against my leg. Well this is awkward.

I'm afraid to say something. He's an old man and maybe he didn't realize that he had placed his cane on my leg. Then he starts coughing and wheezing. Now I really can't do anything. The man can barely breathe. I can't ask him if I can move his cane off of my leg now!

I sit there hoping that his stop is before mine but of course it's not. Once the train pulls into my stop I gently move his cane so it's resting on the seat and not on me.

He doesn't even notice.

11 comments:

  1. Oh damn, I hate that. Ruins the whole commute. I have to admit to being a bit of an asshole on my bus to college; I always sit in the same place (upstairs, so no elderly cane people can bother me) and I basically take over my seat and the seat beside me. I have to be on that bus for an hour, I don't want to spend most of that hour feeling uncomfortable.

    Yeah I know it sounds mean.

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  2. I think I'm probably a bit rude when it comes to people placing their inanimate objects, or parts of their bodies in my person space. If someone is leaning their stuff on me, I give the look, the nudge and then the ahem/glare. It usually works.

    Some people just violate though. Old people shouldn't get a pass!

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  3. @Harley - My commute is about 35-40 minutes so I like to be comfortable. I wish we had an upstairs because that sounds fun.

    @KG - I have a hard time speaking up when I should. I tend to stay silent and then blog about it later.

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  4. Awkward! I don't have to deal with public transportation much, thank goodness!

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  5. Oh man, that is freaking annoying. I don't like people in my spaaaaace *whines*

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  6. Sometimes I would prefer a cane. The other day on the T, the man next to me had his hand in his pants. I asked him what time it was so he would take it out.

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  7. There are worse things he could have done. It would have been nicer for him to rest his cane between his legs but you were nice enough to not mess with him.

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  8. At least it was just his cane! When I was 18, an older guy sat next to me on the El and started groping my thigh. Not cool.

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  9. The cane wouldn't have bothered me. The coughing would have. Ever since I was a kid, I have been super afraid of tuberculosis.

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  10. @L-Kat - Public transportation is interesting that's for sure

    @Gia - I like my space. Like a lot.

    @Melissa - Ew ew ewwwwwwwwww!!

    @Mark - There was some room in-between our seats that would have been fine

    @Tsa - I had some guy rub up against me on the T once. It was horrible!

    @Ally - Oh the coughing freaked me out. I probably have TB.

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  11. lol eeeeek what a fun commute that must have been!

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