Didn't Know She Was On The Phone

I was on a walking trail this morning and out in the distance I saw a woman on the trail coming toward me. I was walking in one direction and she was walking in the other direction coming my way.

When we were about 10 feet apart she looked right at me, I looked at her and she said, “I don’t think so!” She said this with some attitude and she sounded stern, even a bit perturbed.

I was surprised and taken back. “What is she talking about?” I thought. “What happened?!? I didn’t do anything. What’s going on? Why is she upset? What does she mean by ‘I don’t think so?!?’”

I started to say to her, “What happened, is something wrong?”

However, in the time it took for these thoughts to flash through my mind we were now within a foot of each other as we passed on the trail and I noticed she had a Bluetooth type device in her ear. Of course, I then realized she was talking on the phone. She wasn’t actually talking to me, after all. But I had been fooled because she was not holding a phone up to her ear and her hair covered her ear in such a way that I did not, initially, notice the phone device.

As she walked past me I breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment, I thought I was about to find myself involved in some trouble I was not looking for, did not intend, and did not even understand.

I chuckled and thought, “I think it’s time to establish a new rule. My new rule, which I am sure everyone will now abide by, goes like this: whenever a person is talking on the phone in a public area—and the phone is not visible because it operates according to some type of hands-free capability—the person will be required to wear a large sign which reads…

            DON’T BE NERVOUS.

            I’M NOT TALKING TO MYSELF

            AND I’M NOT TALKING TO YOU,

            I’M ON THE PHONE.

I will be speaking with the President and the U.S. Congress in the next few days about my rule. I’m relatively certain they will agree with me. It makes perfect sense, right? I will let you know what they say. They are usually pretty open to my suggestions.