Are We Not Going Elsewhere?

 

'I ordinarily go to the gym every day.'

'Why? Do you work there' I really just want to toast my bagel and bounce back to my desk, but you started this, 'No, I'm serious. Every day?'

'Yeah, well, when you get old, your bones and stuff.'

'Oh, yeah.' Is there any way I can hide from this conversation? Like I am actually standing here wishing the ground would just swallow me up. 'My mom goes to the gym a lot and I always wonder why. She's quite active anyway and it just seems superfluous.'  I just called the guy old to his face, but again I didn't start this, and in my defense this man has done little else than actively try to irritate me since we met last Friday.

He's an entertainer, a performer, and like most performers , like the sad sad Sarah Silverman, craves adulation and acceptance, and most of the time I just hand it over because it is polite. Being polite is easy. Being rude is true freedom. I wonder how many entertainers are self-aware enough to realize that most of their careers are built upon polite laughs and recognition? Certainly not this lout standing in the break room offering impertinent details about his life. I did not start it.

This is why Instagram is down.