I’ve shared several commuter horror stories.  This one though directly effected me.  It was not a pleasant scenario and I hope I’ll never see this guy again, although I know I’ll have the unfortunate displeasure again at some point.

Last night, I got on the train and made my way through the train car.  The train was packed.  A sardine would’ve felt claustrophobic, it was that bad.  There were no aisle seats or window seats left, the only seats left were middle seats in the 3 seaters.  I wasn’t even late getting to the train and it was that crowded, I couldn’t believe it.

So I found a seat.  There were two guys already sitting in the aisle and the window.  The guy (nice guy) on the aisle gladly got up so I could sit down.  As I moved in I noticed, the guy (mean guy) next to the window had his brief case sitting between himself and the wall/window, thus taking up 4 extra inches of space on the seat.  4 inches which were mine.  I could tell they were mine because his ass hung over from his portion of the seat cushion which was blue to my portion of the seat cushion which was burgundy reddish.  I sat there for a few moments pondering the actions I could take.  I chose to say something to him.  What did I have to lose right? (I know, you’re thinking…Oh God here we go!)  The following ensued:

Me: Sir, can you please remove your briefcase from there, you’re taking over my seat too?

Mean guy: Uhhh, ummm, hemmmm, hawwww, no not really, I have a problem with my shoulder and I need to rest my arm on it.

Me: (Thinking – God can’t you come up with anything better than that, honestly?)

Nice guy: What’s wrong?

Me: (I turn to nice guy) This guy has his bag on the other side of him taking up seat space, my seat space!  (And I turn back to mean guy)

Me: (Notice he’s not even using the briefcase as an arm rest, he’s using the window ledge) You’re not even using your briefcase, you’re using the window ledge!!!

Mean guy: (glazed, shocked look on his face that I called him out)  Yeah?

Me: I’m just saying!

Mean guy: Okay you’ve said it!

Me: (turning to the nice guy) And now?  The guy is just being down right rude at this point!

So, I dealt with it.  I sat there.  I made sure my arms were right down at the side of my body so that I had the most arm room as possible.  Mean guy continued to read his newspaper and use the window ledge as his arm rest, and only every now and then using his briefcase.  About two-thirds of the way up to our first stop (about a half hour), I noticed him shuffling his newspapers, and then he removed his briefcase from the seat and put it on the floor.  And then?  Wanna know what he did?  He made a show of rubbing his shoulders every 2 seconds, as if to say, see what pain I’m in, and it’s all your fault!!!

Here’s my thing…as commuters we all have to coexist.  People can be rude, insensitive and as by yesterday’s example…downright mean!!!  I almost turned to him and told him I’d be outing him on my blog today.  I wanted to make sure he knew what a jerk he was and that every one who reads this blog (all 2 of you…but he wouldn’t have to know that), would know that he is by far the worst commuter ever.

P.S. The nice guy, was nice enough that when we did stop at that first stop (Hi Pocklock!), and the train kind of cleared out, he got up and moved his seat to another 3 seater with less drama so that I could move to the outside aisle seat and not have to be subjected to this mean guy any longer.  I like nice guy!