Tuesday, September 9, 2008

No longer sure I want to live abroad...

Wow! My first blogging experience ever. Not gonna lie... a bit nervous. I'm Hailey and I live with Lauren. I have provided her with fodder for previous blog entries, including a windowcard featuring The Hoff and a late night 6 block trek with a $1000 Crate & Barrel loveseat.

I decided this weekend that I must share a certain event with the world (read: readers of Lauren's blog). At 3:00 on Sunday Lauren and I went to play tennis in Central Park. I haven't played in probably 5 or 6 years. We had an end court so we wouldn't constantly have to chase balls into other peoples' games (although we did send 2 over the fence).

About halfway through our hour, I began to talk to Lauren as we played because a) I talk a lot, and b) I play sports better when I don't concentrate (and by better I mean, less than average but better than awful). After about 10 minutes I was approached by a (foreign... possibly eastern European) man from two courts over who was playing tennis with his teenage daughter.

Man: "Ees very nice what you say and all, but it de-concentrate me. So..." (makes motion with his hands to represent a mouth closing and then proceeds to use his hands to pinch his own lips together).

Now I like to think I am a generally respectful person and had he come over and politely asked me to be quiet, I would have apologized and gladly done so. However, he decided to be unbelievably rude. I was already in a bad mood and while I have been taught to kill people with kindness or to not respond because it generally isn't worth it, I couldn't let this go. So I said...

Me: "You could have said please, thank you."

And off he goes, glaring and de-concentrated. I probably cracked up for at least 5 minutes.

While this story is not terribly thrilling, it really made me appreciate being raised with manners (although sometimes my temper wins out when necessary). It's these people who give credibility to the stereotype that New Yorkers are mean. And it's not even us!

So the moral of this story is... I don't swim in your toilet, so don't pee in my pool. And use please and thank you and you will go far... at least when I'm on the tennis court next to you in Central Park.

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