social cues

Now, not that I'm Ms. Manners or Ann Landers or anything like that, but I think there are definitely situations where the social cues are pretty obvious.  Times when it's acceptable to approach someone and try to start up a conversation, and times when every indication is that that other person does not want to be approached by anyone and any attempt to do so is an invasion of their personal space.

For example, when you see a girl (lady, woman, whatever your preferred designator is - anyway we're talking about me) leaning against the wall of the train with her headphones in, hands in pockets, head down and who is sending out a pretty big eff off vibe (though I will concede that it's possible not everyone can pick up on the vibe), this is not an invitation to start talking to her.  Yes, she's wearing sneakers with her work clothes.  Yes, you can infer from that that she will be doing some walking.  What you do not need to do is flail your arms about to get her attention and when she finally looks up point to her feet and ask, "are you going to be doing a lot of walking?" and then follow it up with, "That's great, that's great" and a hasty exit from the car when she says a startled "yes."


Seriously.  It's weird.