#NerdsUnite: SHH! I people watch (confessions of a voyeur)
<editorsnote> So, here I am Facebook stalking, and of course - tweeting about said Facebook stalking ... (as if Facebook stalking isn't humbling enough, I then have to admit to the world said errs of my way.) EITHER WAY!!! My buddy on the other side of the world (but for me the other side of the monitor) sent me this post that she wrote about people watching. HIT IT SALLY!! </editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @sallyIheart
I used to catch the bus and train to work in Sydney and people watched...I called it the guessing game...
Sitting across from you, as you inadvertently stare at my wrist, and I inadvertently stare at your hot pink and brown striped sweater. I wonder where you are going so early in the morning. I wonder if you are wondering the same thing of me. There is a secret worker code of etiquette to morning travels to work. So much so that if you look close enough everyone looks like worker bees buzzing their way into the hive that is the city. People stare past each other, and through each other. It is one of those rare opportunities in life where you can observe others quite closely without being rude, and in most cases without even realising.
Before my most recent starer on the train catches my eye, I turn and look at the blurry ambiguous outlines of objects that make up the passing world outside the window. Trains make everything in life seem production line, factory-like and dirty. Commuters on trains are different to all other types of travelers to work. There is a strangeness and an air of uncertainty to all of them. So much so that in those half-dazed early mornings it is easy to imagine that the train system is some place that the lost people go, and stay in transit forever. Only to return back to the real world for work or food.
By now pink and brown striped sweater has begun to tap his foot and scribble madly onto a piece of paper that could only best be described as a poster for some sort of human rights activist campaign. Immediately I know more about this stranger that has chosen to sit adjacent to me on this mornings train. I play games with myself guessing where he will get off based on the little amount of information I have picked up since we alighted. I conclude that he will get off at Newtown, as I have generally labeled him as "alternative", see pink and brown striped sweater, and human rights poster. Then realising that I am heading for the same stop I wonder if he is playing the same guessing game, and whether he has chosen me as a Newtowns' or a Centrals'. In this game the easiest to pick are the Redferns'.
Nearing the station I stand, as does my fellow starer. Another win for me this guessing game. As I leave my world of the lost commuters to return to the real world for work, I wonder if I look like a Newtowns', only to conclude that I must be one of those ambiguous commuters that people often mistake for a Centrals' when playing the guessing game.
#nerdsunite
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