( 2:45 PM )
Wednesday, May 14, 2PM. Music Currently Playing: The Microphones, Glow Part 2
Apparently some regular readers of my blogg feel as if I have been neglecting my blogly duties. So here I am, with nothing in particular to discuss.
No, that isn't true. Let me talk about how little I get along with east-coast folk. Despite my emotive, enthusiastic nature, when it comes to living life, I tend to be extremely laid back. I rarely wear shoes now if I can help it. I don't own a watch. My attitude is very Ecclesiastical, "to everything there is a season," and as such, I take very little seriously, and I rarely if ever get stressed out about work.
Don't get me wrong, I don't like my job, I am a corporate cubicle monkey pressing buttons for peanuts. But this doesn't stress me out, and when I walk out the door in the evening it disappears from my mind. In that respect, it's an ideal job for me. I refuse to do what I saw my father do, I refuse to become what several of my friends became after college. Their jobs became their identities. To quote Mr. Tyler Durden: "YOU ARE NOT YOUR FUCKING JOB." It's something I wish I could remind people once in a while.
Anyhow, at work, my generally relaxed attitude often comes into direct conflict with what I would call the 'east-coast' personality. I answer the phone and I have this New Yorker on the line screeching at me with his flattened vowels and truncated consonants. He's pushy. Antogonistic. In a HUGE FUCKING HURRY. There is an extreme lack of manners or general verbal pleasantry. He has a hard time listening to instructions, and he rarely answers questions he's asked completely since he's evidently in too much a hurry to repond with precision as well. It's as if, in the middle of the night, one of those giant New York sewer roaches crawled up his ass and laid eggs and when he awoke and got to work this morning they hatched. And somehow this is the fault of everyone he comes into contact with.
I suppose it's safe to say not every east-coast resident acts like a spoiled 5-year old on crystal methamphetamine, but all the one's I deal with do (aside from the very fine co-writers on the 2Wall website. They are all pretty decent guys.) What I want to know is, why are so many people from that part of the country like that? When I talk to ladies in South Carolina or Alabama nothing could be more pleasant. Ditto for the "hey dude" attitude I get from the Californians. What is it about living in New York or Boston or DC turns you into such a troll?
Being in a hurry never EVER gets a job done faster. The job gets done when it gets done, and going around antagonizing and intimidating people will generally just make a job take longer. I thought this was obvious, but maybe it's not. Furthermore, being in a constant hurry, do you feel better at the end of the day? You're in a hurry to do what? More work? So you can what..? Go home and go to bed so you can get up and start the whole thing over again? It makes me sad to think there are all these people stuck on this hamster wheel of self-created frustration. When you're in a hurry you miss all the best moments in life.
I remember a quote I heard one time that said manners are the lubricant that makes society tolerable, and I generally agree with this. As civilized as we all think we are, I am not as sure that given the right circumstances we wouldn't all devolve in an atavistic blood orgy and start running around naked putting pigs heads on wooden stakes. Manners are the thing that prevents this. And in the end, I think that's all I really want, is just some basic manners. I am sure my mom would be proud of me that I can admit that.
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