Handing him his lunch
I've ridden the CTA long enough to know that one cardinal rule is that you don't touch another person's stuff.
So I was somewhat surprised to see a woman in her late 20s beeline to the only available seat -- because a lunch was occupying the seat -- pick up the lunch, and uncerimoniously dump the lunch on the lap of her neighbor. And it woke him up.
I think he was too dazed to take much offense, even though he shouldn't.
He went back to sleep and she got her seat.
Good for her. I've seen plenty of people feign sleep so they can slouch into a neighboring seat, thinking everyone will be too polite to disturb them.
Saw a guy yesterday on the Addison bus with a huge suitcase... he sets the suitcase on an open seat and stands in the aisle, creating a logjam of people up in the front of the bus; none of which were willing to try to squeeze past him. They should have, we had plenty of seats in the back.
Posted by: Patrick | June 21, 2007 at 11:43 AM
I've normally just woken up the person by tapping them on the shoulder and asking them to move his/her stuff. I don't believe most of them are sleeping either. But I guess I just don't understand how someone can not be aware of his/her surroundings enough to know that he/she is being rude as all hell.
Posted by: Kimberli | June 21, 2007 at 12:18 PM
Well done! Being polite on the CTA simply doesn't work anymore. People block doors, hog seats, and are just plain rude and it keeps getting worse. You have to fend for yourself.
Just yesterday on the Purple Line, I stood up to let a pregant woman take my seat and this ENORMOUS woman pushed her out of the way, took the seat, and started inhaling a bag of Cheetos. She said "I has a condition and needs to sit" so she knew exactly what she was doing. Being fat, lazy, uneducated, and rude does not constitute a "condition".
Posted by: ChicagoJ | June 21, 2007 at 01:21 PM
That's terrible, Chicago J! Did you say anything? Did the pregnant woman?
Posted by: Kimberli | June 21, 2007 at 02:19 PM
Neither of us did. She (the pregnant lady) thanked me again and said not to get too upset about it. But I'm still fired up about it.
Posted by: ChicagoJ | June 21, 2007 at 04:48 PM
You're such a baby, I've taken the CTA before I can remember. Seats aren't made to hold someone's lunch. I've moved stuff around before, I also dislike the people that put their feet up on another seat, put their bag somewhere. If I was there, my nice side would do what she did. My other side would wake him up and tell him to move it, if he didn't, I'd move it myself. Respect people, not extenuating items such as lunch bags.
Posted by: Cimmeriian | June 23, 2007 at 04:50 PM