SOME PEOPLE are so rude! I was in a restaurant talking on my cell phone the other day, and I could barely hear a word my friend was saying because of all the noise.
What is it with these people? Couldn't they see that I was on the phone? I mean, how rude!
Even the waitress interrupted me.
"Can I take your order?" she asked.
"Give me a break!" I shot back. "I am on the phone here!"
The woman huffed off. I should have called the restaurant's manager and had her fired. What kind of person interrupts someone who is on the telephone?
During my entire 20-minute conversation, the people around me just kept talking and banging their forks and knives against their plates.
Were these people raised in a barn? Didn't their parents teach them any manners? I am on the telephone and they just keep on eating and making noise!
I wanted to just stand up and scream, "Will you people just shut up! Can't you see I'm taking an important call?" But I didn't. I've got too much class to do that. I just tried to carry on my conversation despite all the noise and rudeness.
Still, the commotion was so bad I could hardly hear what my friend was saying about Brittany Spears' sister's pregnancy. And I never did understand what she said about Paris Hilton. Then that annoying waitress showed up again and mumbled something else about taking my order.
"I'll give you my order when I get off the phone!" I shouted. "Now, just leave me alone while I'm talking!" She started to leave. "And ask these other rude people at that table to stop being so loud while I'm on the phone!" I yelled as the waitress walked away.
My friend asked me what was going on and I said, "Oh, it's just the people in this restaurant being rude." She understood.
This lack of telephone etiquette is everywhere. I was driving down the street not long ago and this crazy man opened his car door to get out just as I was dialing someone on my phone.
"You idiot!" I screamed out the window. "You should know better than to get out of a parked car while I'm driving and dialing! I can't watch you and the telephone at the same time!"
I mean, if I had hit the guy it wouldn't have been my fault. He's the one who opened that car door while I was on the phone. If I had run over him, his insurance company should have had to pay me.
The city should also have more consideration for cell-phone drivers. I mean, I am sitting at a stoplight dialing someone and the light turns green. Hey! I'm not finished dialing yet! And when I stay and try to finish, these rude drivers behind me start beeping their horns. Come on! Give me a break.
Then, these strangers come up and start talking to you while you are on the phone.
Just the other day I was standing in a checkout line talking to my friend when this guy in front of me turns around and says, "I'm sorry. I didn't catch what you said?"
I looked him straight in the eye and shouted, "It's none of your business what I said! Leave me alone. Can't you see that I'm on the phone? What are you, some kind of pervert? You want me to call a cop?"
Which brings up another point. The police have no respect for cell-phone users. This cop stopped me for speeding and started asking me all these questions. I had to try to talk to him and my friend on the phone at the same time. Can you imagine that?
Then he wants me to sign a ticket.
"Officer, I can't write, keep my hand on the steering wheel and hold my cell phone at the same time," I said.
You know what he said?
"Then put down your cell phone!"
Right in the middle of a call! That has got to be police brutality. When I picked up my phone again I should have called a lawyer.
Everyone is so rude to people using cell phones these days! I don't know what this world is coming to.
Disclaimer: The preceding incidents didn't actually take place. They are merely dramatizations that illustrate how some people using cell phones act these days.
Donnie Johnston: