Assertions of awareness…

Almost a year’s gone by since the last time I wrote but, like the character in this post, all things must come of age. Although I have always reveled in being pissed off and writing about it and although there have always been consistent reasons for doing such, it seems as though exiguous happenings can cause more determination in me than the other ones would.

One of the local shops. While in queue I observe the old lady in front of me. She’s definitely the “self-respecting” type. The compulsory fur coat, the dyed hair – the works, to put it shortly. To my awe, she pulls out a 100 lei bill to pay for two packs of napkins. It’s her right, of course. I cash my buys, and exit the store. Or at least I try to. The building has a sort of antechamber, so you can’t leave directly into the street. And right there, blocking the entrance, stood the furred hag counting, obviously, the haystack of change she had been given. I wait and I wait, I glance over her shoulder so as to make her, perhaps, inch, but to no result. When I tried to squeeze myself through the gap she’d left in the door, I saw the woman moving. One step to the left would have sufficed to let me pass. But that would have been to easy. No, the freakin’ hag had to steer slowly, covering what was left of the door, stepping out of the shop then stopping once again to… count the change.

I know, it’s no big deal. But that lady’s an archetype. She’s the one who, with that same dignified demeanor, tells you to let her sit in your place in the bus. And she’s the one who, if you don’t, starts nodding her head, scolding the “youngsters nowadays”. And there’s always another hag (always!) who shares her viewpoint thus commencing the mindless bullshit about their time, respect and how “it used to be”. “I know we were young too, but we had our limits!” etc. She’s the one who tells (or – in a modern day rendition of the smoke signals – send the message through the radiator pipes ) you to turn down the music so she can listen to Dan Diaconescu peacefully, when in fact you were trying to cover up the noise of her TV. And of course you’re the rude one if you don’t rise or if you don’t lower the volume but the simple “bisexual” fact that respect “goes both ways”  isn’t as obvious, it seems. The Sex Pistols said “Hope I die before I get old”. That’s downright stupid. What I want is to get some common sense before I come of age…