Observing

One of the things I'm noticing as I get older is that I'm becoming a much better observer than I ever was. I don't know if that comes naturally with age, if it's a learned behavior or simply a desired one. Part of it could be due to my lack of alcohol consumption. Alcohol always persuaded me to be much more of a participant (in just about anything!) than an observer, but that's a blog for another day.

Human behavior is fascinating sometimes when you sit back and observe. Take for instance my visit to the Post Office yesterday morning. I arrived at 9:25 a.m. and the line was just about to the entrance. There were 13 people in front of me (I counted) and I couldn't help but notice only one woman working. They had been closed the day before so I couldn't understand why this would be but I took a deep breath as I accepted that this was not going to be a quick in and out. Luckily I had a client with me so we were able to chat which made the wait somewhat bearable.

As we inched ever so slowly toward the woman you could start to feel the tension in the air. People were mumbling under their breath, pacing back and forth, side to side and loud sighing surrounded me. By the time it was our turn the line was now out the door. I counted 22 from start to finish. The simmer was becoming a low boil as one woman walked up and said, "Where's your supervisor? What is this...insanity?" Another yelled out from the line, "Yeah!! She's right, this is crazy! All I want is stamps!"

I suddenly felt very sorry for the one worker behind the counter and let her know I appreciated her situation and she was doing a fine job under the circumstances. She called for a supervisor but noone came (big surprise, would you willingly be thrown to the lions?), she called for help and one woman showed up who could only help people picking up mail.

"Can't you sell me some stamps? This is ridiculous! Don't they train you people to sell stamps? Give me the name and phone number of your supervisor!

"Me too, I want it too."

"You'd better make alot of copies because I'm taking it too! Someone's going to hear about this!"

My client was now sitting down at the handicapped desk filling out some paperwork (the time was 10:35 and the line was up to 25). Again I hear, "All this for some stamps. This is out of control!" You could feel the low boil turning into a full boil as the rumble of the crowd increased. I piped in, "You know you can buy stamps at CVS."

"YES I KNOW!! I could've gone to CVS OR Walgreens OR Stop & Shop, but I need 150 and I wanted to pick out which kind I like!" I sympathetically responded, "Oh, I see. That's too bad."

I began thinking to myself, what you need in a situation like this is a diversion. They should have some nice music playing, or a TV or a damn clown! Maybe I should do a little song and dance to ease the tension (it's the Libra in me...keep the peace at all costs!).

Then I heard it..."You know, if someone wanted to hold this place up there's only one worker! What the heck could she do about it?" My client and I looked at eachother and I said, "I feel a riot coming on, time to go!"

Fascinating stuff if you're able to observe and not participate.

xo,
Carrie