People you meet on a weekday afternoon

Have you ever been unemployed? Because it turns out the non-working folks are a little weird in many ways.

I’ve been unemployed for a while, but I mean really unemployed and idle. I’ve been out and about a little the past few weekdays during office hours, and I haven’t got nice observations.

• The Angry Mother

First I witnessed a lady basically permanently unhappy. She was yelling at everybody she met, while her daughter follows her around embarrassed. The daughter also looks way old enough to look after herself, but the mother decides to be in charge and yell at anyone she thinks is being unfriendly to her daughter, which was everybody.

• The Yelling Match

Then a lady decides to yell at another for blocking the way in the bus. The one yelled at remained calm, but after the yelling lady left, she vented out her frustrations about how she could’ve gotten out earlier, if she knew she needed some time to get to the door.

• The Is-It-Thursday?

Then there was a lady on the train who asked another lady whether it was indeed Thursday that day. Yes, it was. She later asked questions to confirm, like whether it was Wednesday the day before and whether it would be Friday the day after. (Somebody call Rebecca Black!)

• The Smiley With The Paper Fan

And then there was a guy who sat creepily at a corner, with a slight grin at himself while his headphones were on. He later proceeded to take out this ancient oriental multifold paper fan. He tried to flip it open, but failed. He continued to grin just so slightly, and used his finger tips to run through it slowly and open it up, and then fan himself. The air-conditioning was working very well in that train on that day.

• The Tweezers Guy

This afternoon, I rode the train sitting opposite a guy with tweezers in his hands. I kid you not, he had the tweezers in his hands for at least half an hour. With one hand, he felt around for his invisible goatee, and with the other, he tweezed at his chin again and again. No amount of staring got him down. This went on for the entire journey.

Now is it just me, or are unemployed people a little extraordinary?!