Attention Whore

I generally like public transportation, and I'm not being facetious. My commute is 25 minutes door-to-door, and I don't have to concentrate on anything for those 25 minutes.

Public transportation is also a chance for attention-deprived people to shine in front of a captive audience. Whether it's the guy listening to his iPod so loud the entire train can hear it, or the couple making out on a morning rush hour train on their way to work (I saw it again last Friday), or some trixie blabbering on her phone about how she can't believe McKenzie did that, an L train truly is a haven for the attention starved. That said, I encountered a new one today on my way home from work. I sat down next to a woman who could have been anywhere between 19 and 41. She had her phone to her ear, so I assumed she was talking on it. While I was reading, I noticed that she was not talking, but singing very faintly into the phone. This went on for the next ten minutes. Then, when things apparently go too loud for her (thanks to the 19th Century design of our mass transit rail system here in Chicago), she cranked the volume on her phone to reveal that she was signing along to a song, which was now playing very audibly for our half of the train to hear, masked only by her attempts to sing over it.

What the fuck is wrong with people? Why can't people just be quiet? Did she think there was an agent on the train who was going to offer her a record deal? Because there was, and he didn't. Prove me wrong.