2006-08-21
In which I discuss the personal hygiene habits of others...
This morning on the train I sat next to a business man in his late 50s.* The man was wearing a neatly pressed navy suit and reading the Wall Street Journal. He was perfect company because he didn't talk on his cell phone or crowd the seat with all of his belongings. But about 20 minutes into the ride, I glanced over from my book just in time to see the man pick his nose. I didn't want to see this and I considered it bad timing on my part. I wasn't really bothered by the nose picking, I have pretty liberal standards when it comes to that sort of thing. What bothered me was that the man then wiped the fruits of his labor on to the train's window sill. No tissue. Nothing. He just left it there.I'm almost as disturbed by this encounter as I was when I saw the woman shaving her legs with the toilet water in the North Station restroom.**
Situations like these make me rethink my decision not to carry hand sanitizer with me while using public transit.
*I'm guessing late 50s, but I'm not so good at guessing ages. I would not be able to make a living working at a carnival, although I would enjoy all that access to funnel cake.
**That was disturbing for a couple of reasons, not the least of which was that I really had to pee and she was taking up one of the only three stalls in the whole damn place.