#073 Shouting Conversations

It is unbelievable how lazy we have become these days. I am so annoyed when someone sitting over 20 feet from me strikes up a conversation but refuses to pick their (able-bodied) lazy ass up out of the chair and come talk to me.

I was sitting at a dinner table at someone's house the other day while (go figure) eating dinner, when another person decided to start a conversation with me... while seated in a completely different room. This person was either on the computer or watching television... basically doing something that required little attention. At the same time I was eating, they were literally shouting to me in order for me to hear them, and I had to shout back. Had I not been eating I would have gladly gotten up and relocated myself to their location to have a normal conversation at a normal volume. Instead, they proceeded to shout back and forth to me, waiting for me to respond in between mouthfuls of food. How incredibly rude!

Currently I am fortunate enough to sit in a relatively small office space, but there have been other occasions where I have not been so lucky. I have been in several situations where people would literally shout to me over the tops of cubicles to ask me a question. Let me put it to you this way: if you need to shout, you're too far away. If you're that far away, pick up the phone and call me, or even write me an email if you're THAT lazy to get up and come talk to me. In just about every case, that other person could probably have benefited from getting what little physical effort it took to actually pick themselves up and walk over to me. If it is impossible for you to comply with my request for you to be physically near me when engaging in conversation, I honestly would rather not speak to you at all.