As someone who hasn't smoked for almost a year now, I understand how difficult it is to quit. I also like to think that I'm not one of those people who point out that because they've quit everyone else should as well - like snap your fingers and its done or something.
This is as an introduction to a rant, because I was sitting on the bus today and a woman sat down in her seat plus half of mine. So I'm now squashed against the window, trying my best not to get annoyed with her overly loud admonitions to her kid who isn't listening anyway. About two minutes after she sat down the woman announced that her kid's grubby handprints on her tracksuit pants stank so this resulted in more yelling at her kid and a squirt of perfume
Followed by another 17 squirts (yes, I counted) in quick succession, all aimed across her face so that it went practically straight into mine. After the fifth squirt I asked her to please stop and she informed me that it was a free country and if I don't like her perfume then I could get off the bus - quite ignoring the fact that as I was partially wedged under her bulk I could do no such thing. When I said something again another five or so squirts along, this time asking if she had considered that someone nearby might have an allergy to the perfume, she didn't even bother to reply and just kept squirting without pause. I would have said more but other passengers were giving ME some fairly dirty looks.
At this point I think she decided that she had a terrible taste in her mouth because she started waving her tongue about and wiping it with a tissue before putting some gum in her mouth and chewing it without closing her mouth. Really loudly. In my ear.
Now when I was smoking I had to put up with people complaining about my habit and I mostly tried to not have a problem with it, even when people would try and tell me that I was a complete asshole because having a puff over ten metres away downwind of them was going to give them cancer and it would all be my fault, even when I'd been standing there for considerable time and they'd walked up and decided to complain, even when I was in a designated smoking area. The reason I mostly tried to not have a problem with it was that as soon as I opened my mouth to point out any of these perfectly reasonable factors, every single non-smoker present would instantly have an even bigger issue with me because not only was I a filthy terrible smoker who was going to kill everyone with cancer, I was also rude about it. I put up with this because I knew that it was a bad habit that, on occassion, could have pretty serious effects on those around me.
While chewing loudly and encroaching on other people's personal space with your girth are annoying they are pretty much guaranteed to have long term implications for no one, the perfume spraying almost killed someone because when I got home I discovered that my brother's girlfriend was over and she is very seriously allergic to aerosol propellant, as in hospitalisation, so before I could go and say hi to her I had to put all the clothes I was wearing in the washing machine and have a shower. What I hadn't thought to do, though, was leave outside the bag I had been carrying and if it hadn't been for my brother going to the hallway before his girlfriend and smelling the very strong perfume smell (this was over half an hour later, which hopefully gives you an idea of how much was sprayed).
It is essentially a form of discrimination that a person could be trying to do completely the right thing and still be considered some kind of devil spawn purely because it was nicotine related, while most other people can be particularly rude and inconsiderate and it is the person who makes a fuss who is considered evil.
This is pretty rambly even for me and is unlikely to make a great deal of sense to anyone, I know, but I am just so very angry at the moment - over five hours later at this point. I needed an outlet and you're it, so thanks for that.
On a happier note, this is another first for this blog, the first time I've mentioned family members. Yay!
No comments:
Post a Comment