stuff on the train

While waiting for the train at the Prudential Center last night (after a fun little trip to Trader Joe's - where they have the best/cheapest frozen vegetables) I saw a lady wearing a purse that contained a giant clock on the front of it.  A clock with approximately a 6 inch diameter, fully functioning.  It was set to the wrong time, but still that's got to be convenient.  "I wonder what time it is?  Oh I know, I'll just look at my purse!"  You think I'm kidding but check it out:

Can you tell me what the allure of something like this is?  Is it pretty?  Is it cool?  When you're standing in a store, what makes you look at this and think "oh yea, I need one of those!"  I don't get it, but then no one has ever accused me of being fashionable.

Shortly after seeing Awesome Purse Lady, I was sitting on the green line daydreaming about the tacos I would be making at home, when my attention settled on a group of high school aged kids sitting behind me.  They were talking about normal kid stuff - other kids at their school, band, music, etc (is it just me or are all kids really loud?  Was I that loud at that age?  Probably, but man I'm sure it was annoying to anyone else in a public area) and one of the girls mentioned that she had bought a poster of Kurt Cobain recently.  One of the other kids said, "yea that guy blew his head off with a shotgun the year we were born."  And suddenly I felt very, very, very old.

I got to Government Center where I needed to switch on over to the blue line, and as I walked downstairs I could hear a woman yelling rather loudly.  My first reaction was that there was some crazy person ranting as crazy people do about something or other (which is possibly one of my favorite things about living in a city), but as I listened more closely I determined that this woman was actually just having a normal conversation.  On her cell phone.  Why is it that when some people are on their cell phones they think that it somehow puts them in a cone of silence and they can go ahead and speak at whatever volume they choose with no regard to the other people near them?  I wish that I could better describe exactly how loud this woman was.  Here's the best I can do:  Go outside with a buddy, have them stand a good 50 yards away (half the length of a football field) and then have a conversation with them.  The volume you would need to carry on that conversation is approximately the volume this lady was using.  In an enclosed underground space made of concrete.  And every time there was train noise, she just got louder in order to be heard over it.  Once we actually got into the train car I thought maybe she'd simmer down.  Nope, everyone in the car got to hear her conversation like she was sitting next to them for the two stops she was on the train.  Turns out she was riding with two other people.  They didn't seem phased at all by it but I would have been completely mortified if anyone I was with pulled something like that.  It's just not what we do.

Not bad for a Tuesday.