Wednesday, June 06, 2007

The BART Soap Opera

Maybe someone into astrology can tell me why today was a day filled with soap operas on BART. Is it because certain stars align to cause people to be extra sensitive and emotional that they don't mind having quite a large audience listening to their phone conversations?

Normally, I avoid taking all calls on BART because I don't like talking knowing everyone is listening, even if they don't want to. But you know how sometimes, there are situations that trump everything else and you just no longer care who you're broadcasting your life story to? For me, the one time was when I heard my husband got in a car accident. I didn't care who was listening- I spoke as loudly as needed to make sure he can hear that I'm coming home.

Soap opera scene #1: A woman in the train was fighing with her boyfriend. It was a crowded train, so I think there were at least 15 people near her that could hear what she's saying.

She yells, "So you're telling me you lied to me last night?" "Were you with her last night?" "Was she there with your friends?" "Is she with you now?" "Oh no, don't tell me she is with you right now? Right now? As I'm talking to you?" "You are one sick bastard."

Obviously, I couldn't hear what he said, but I can only imagine this to be unpleasant for both involved. Yikes!

Soap opera scene #2: A man also in the train was fighing with his ex-wife about being able to see the kids. This was sort of sad. I don't know his situation but I hope his ex-wife becomes more understanding. I'm only going to write a small excerpt of his conversation because this is not anything to laugh about. It's just plain sad!

He pleads, "You can't keep the kids from me. I know they miss me. I can hear them asking for me back there. You are being unreasonable. No, this has nothing to do with paperwork."

How awful. Although we don't know her side of the story-- maybe she has reasons?

There was a 3rd soap opera scene that is not PG-13, so I'd rather not share it here. Basically a young man was bragging to his buddy how he scored last night.

We, the rest of the passengers, didn't purposely listen in but these conversations were so loud and engrossed that we had no choice but to listen. I know I have a choice about sharing them or not sharing them, but I wanted to make a point that people should just keep their personal conversations out of the BART trains although there are times where you just don't care anymore.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I completely agree, people should keep their private conversations just that - private. It's not just on BART, it's in most public places. Perhaps people find a need to speak extra loud on BART because, well BART noise is loud. I rarely use my cell phone on BART for that very reason. On the rare occasion that I do use it, I speak almost in a whisper (so low I can barely hear myself), to be courteous & to try to keep my conversation as private as possible. I've never had the person on the other end say they can't hear me, rather the contrary, they can hear me just fine.

Another EXTREMELY annoying thing is when 2 or more passengers feel the need to continue their conversation when going through the trans-bay tube - the train noise is damned loud going through there & having people scream to hear each other, rather than wait 10 minutes, to continue their conversation is extremely frustrating.

Anonymous said...

Earplugs. Cheap. Reliable. LOL. As a regular rider I guess I get used to tuning these people out and the plugs play a role in keeping me sane on the train after a long day at work.

Anonymous said...

If someone is having a real loud phone conversation, I stare at them. I'm just dying form someone to ask me to stop looking so I can say "talk more quietly and I will."