Thursday 3/3/22
People are odd. Multiple times a day I end up saying to myself, "Okay, what are we doing here?" when I see someone doing something stupid or inexplicable or crazy or a combo.
Today I'm running the stairs. For the first time in many months, there's this older woman who I used to see often when it was warm out. She walks up and down the stairs rather than run them. As she walks, she extends her arms and makes these circular motions. The entire time. It looks pretty crazy. I guess she read somewhere that this is good for you? Or maybe eventually it will make you fly? I have no clue. Anyway, I show up today, start running, and after a while she arrives. I'm on the far left side, she's on the far right. She's wearing a mask. I'm sorry, but I find masks more or less ridiculous, but I find them absurd outside. But okay. Wear whatever you want. Not my business. So I'm running, and after a while, she comes all the way over to my side. Gets right in the bloody runway. What the hell? Why would you do that? And I'm spitting and disgusting and sweat is flying off of me. And she comes all the way over and gets square in the middle of the flight path. What are we fucking doing here? And each time, I have to go around this lady. As she's doing her insane arm thing, too. You have the mask presumably because you're worried? Then again, it's just what people do. They don't think about anything. No thought enters into human existence anymore. But in theory if you have the mask, you'd want some distance, so why on earth would you do this? Do you seek my drippage and spray?
Then there is the woman who cleans the hallway again. Okay, I realize she is what used to be called soft in the head. I can't take the singing over the vacuum anymore, though. What are we doing here? Why is this happening? Have you no awareness of how you sound? That other people exist? That people live here? But this blows my mind. She has this protracted conversation with every single person who comes in or goes out. She shuts off the vacuum to have it. And you know what? They're more than happy to have it. That blows my mind more. Okay, maybe you want to play contrarian and be like, "That's because they're deeply kind, Colin." No they're not. That's bullshit. One of these guys is one of the building bros who has himself a belching fest all the way from the fourth floor to the ground level each time he leaves. He loves it. I think he likes the echo effect of the hall. She was saying the same thing to each of them. It was her dad's birthday in a few days. That was the story. And this one guy starts saying he'll pray for her dad. She didn't say he was dying. Just had a birthday coming up. And the guy says this a solid eight, nine times. He was wearing some sort of sandal I think? I don't know the name. They're popular. That prompted a huge conversation. Both big fans. Then he starts telling her he's going camping momentarily in Florida. That's weird. Do you go camping in Florida? Like in a swamp with alligators and coral snakes? Isn't camping more like the Berkshires and Maine? Who goes to where the water moccasins are? Every time one of these people stop, I'm also thinking, "Shouldn't you be working?" Does that not happen anymore? Crocs. They were crocs.
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