Monday, April 20, 2009

Knowing When to Keep Quiet

OK - so I have a few "shortcomings". And I admit that one of them is knowing when to keep quiet but I've been working on that little detail very hard. It makes it much easier here in the city. If you say things to strangers, they don't like it. Not one bit. They think you might be an ax-murderer. Or a weirdo. Or worse yet, trying to invade their space. Truly - things could easily be the reverse. I could say something random to someone who in turn could be an ax murderer and there you go. Wham.

So - that being said, I'm a lot more careful.

Saturday was a true test of my ability to keep quiet. Twice.

Sitting a couple of rows in front of us at the ball game was a young woman in her 20's. She was dressed very nicely and very stylish (not necessarily appropriate for a baseball game but I digress). Anyway, she had her hair pulled back in a ponytail. Cute little ponytail - except for one thing. There was a huge lump of hair on top of her head that she hadn't smoothed down. At one point she took the holder out and smoothed through her hair with her fingers and put it back into the ponytail - with the same results. I really thought that she should know - but decided against it. Someone SHOULD have told her - like the guy she was sitting with - but probably not me. So I kept quiet.

Same day, same ball game.....and the father with the two kids sitting behind us were not for the Nationals. They were for the Marlins and as the game went on, they became more and more annoying. I truly don't care if they root for the other team. It's a big stadium and there are likely going to be people for the other side. But seriously. The language these kids used was horrible. They cursed! And then they started yelling BOOOOOOO instead of Ta da da dadada.... CHARGE. Every time they did that little routine, Jay would holler CHARGE louder and louder - but not enough to drown out those two kids. They kept yelling THE NATS SUCK! And their father really did nothing. They argued between themselves and were really obnoxious. So - was this a time to keep quiet? I'm not sure. I really wanted to say something like "Do you mind?" or "Your children are really annoying" or.... well, you get my point.

Once again, safety was on my mind. You just never know. So I kept quiet and didn't embarrass anybody. But it was close.

2 comments:

Amy W said...

Now you know if you were in Kansas, you could have helped that poor young woman with her ponytail. As for the rude dad and his boys, I think I might have changed seats. Can you do that?

Sheryl Kenoyer said...

Can't do that - they were reserved. But I wish we could have. It really made the last part of the game literally unbearable!