As you know I got tattooed this afternoon. Nothing exciting, just blackwork filling on my left arm (the tattoo that we started eight years ago or something like that), but it's always nice to get to see Shane. I rode public transit (I don't really enjoy driving unless it's in one of “my” cars, and they're all off the road right now), which I enjoy doing because it gives me a chance to explore other people's consciousness in a different way than I usually have the opportunity to. I finished up just before three, which meant that the subway ride home was full of 15-16 year olds.
There was a gaggle of them standing about fifteen feet from me for most of the ride, incredibly loud and obnoxious, but harmless. Just being boisterous kids mostly, but with an emphasis on the loud and obnoxious part that I already mentioned. A bunch of older people were making rolly-eye faces and commenting with stuff like “thank god those aren't my kids” and “kids are so rude these days”. These kids really divided the older people on the subway into three groups: those that didn't care one way or the other, those who thought it was funny, and those who had no tolerance for it.
A couple of older people actually yelled at them, and then the kids lost it and just cackled madly and started insulting these old people like crazy, making fun of them for working (“at least I don't work in a pantyhose factory, or is that too hard for you because you're too old to tell colors apart?”), for being old, and so on. I thought it was pretty funny on the whole, I don't know why the old people got so worked up. Young people are loud. They were probably loud when they were 15 too. BFD.
But what was interesting is one of the kids made a comment about subway jumpers (I think it was “isn't it weird that they never say 'suicide', just 'we have a jumper'?”), and the kids got really serious and shifted to a conversation about how wrong it is to tease people, even if you don't like them, and about how easy it is to push people into depression. It put a really different spin on their tormenting (teasing) of the old people (which was a retaliatory act, and, from their point of view, all in good fun).
Anyway, I've got an update to finish, and since no one but me and Leeta are home today we don't have to be embarrassed to be blasting The Technicolor Web of Sound.
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