Wednesday, September 05, 2007

I feel bad for people who sweat easily

On the ride to SF today, the train temperature was slightly on the warm side. It wasn't on the hot side at all yet, however. There was a man sitting down who was sweating profusely. He had sweat stains all over his dress shirt...on his back, armpits, and chest. He also had sweat dripping like a waterfall from all around his head. His neck was gleaming with wetness as his sweat was collecting around his collar. He leaned back on his seat -- a move I believe was intended to wipe away the sweat around his neck and head, as he moved his head slightly up and down on the seat cushion.

He wiped the dripping sweat off his face every few minutes. It wouldn't stop! Meanwhile, the sweat stains around his shirt were enlarging by the minute! The individual wet spots combined into a huge mass of wetness on his shirt.

He got up at Embarcadero, still sweating. I had been standing the entire time and usually grab a seat after the Embarcadero crowd exits, to rest my feet for 5 more minutes until my stop. But I wasn't about to take his seat! It was probably wet!

I felt bad for the guy. Everyone was looking at him. He even had sweat dripping around his nose. I know there are disorders that cause people to sweat uncontrollably. It was warm in the train but it wasn't bad at all-- everyone else was fine. I even mistakenly wore a sweater today and I felt fine. This poor guy really had a rough start to his morning.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

that sounds pretty disgusting.

Anonymous said...

It's a real condition. there's nothing disgusting about it.

Anonymous said...

i second anonymous #2. my psychology prof informed the class that he had a hypothalamus problem that made him sweat all the time, even when its cold. so he would always have a towel w/ him during lectures to wipe his face off from time to time.