Can you bring the volume down a few notches?

In this post, I mentioned how I feel about long personal phone conversations while on public transportation. On Sunday night while on yet another train ride, my point was proven. (BTW, I can't wait until I can actually drive a CAR when going on these long distance trips. Just sayin.)

Now, I have learned the importance of choosing a train seat properly: location, proximity to the bathroom (preferably far from it) and the identity of the person sitting right next to you are crucially important.

As I walked onto the train on Sunday - a four-hour ride - I made sure the first two criteria were covered. Check! While scoping out my options for someone to sit next to, I concluded that I had two options:

• An attractive young man.
• A young girl who already had her headphones in watching a movie.

Now, normally this would be a no-brainer. Attractive young man should beat young girl every time. But for some reason, I opted to sit next to the young girl. The fact that I was popping cough drops every two seconds also contributed to this decision. Headphones = No talking.

Thank GOD I made that decision!

Over the course of the next four hours, I experienced the ultimate in reasons why I think cell phones should be banned on public transportation. At first, attractive young man - let's call him 'Bob' - seemed like a nice, mature guy.

But it wasn't long until Bob started having multiple conversations at decibels much higher than acceptable in-train levels. So as I recall these conversations, don't accuse me of eavesdropping ... Bob made it impossible to avoid. Not even my iPod could block him out.

At this point Bob was still a normal guy, who just talked loud. No biggie. I'm still cool with it. Within his first conversation, I learned that he just graduated from college and is working as an engineer. Bob likes to go up north in the summer and likes to visit to Chicago.

Cue second conversation - this time on the phone. Bob is talking about his trip to Chicago. He is telling the other person about how crazy it was and how wasted he got. Due to this, I assume he's talking to a friend. Then he continues to explain how he drank beer out of a funnel that has a tube attached to it. Hmmm ... that's interesting. If he's talking to a friend, would they really not know what a beer bong is?

Another highlight of the conversation was Bob talking about a girl he met. Since his friend had already 'marked her' (his words, not mine), he decided to back off and let him have her since said friend had bought the keg. How nice. Bob then mentioned that while hanging out with this girl, her and her friends didn't appreciate his jokes. He added that he didn't want to put up with that 'maturity' crap. So much for my original impression that he was mature.

At this point, I'm stumped on who he could be talking to. This problem was solved when he finally hung up the phone and turned to his seat-mate and said, "It's always fun describing a beer bong to your ... MOM."

An interesting conversation to have with your mom if you ask me. But at least he was off the phone.

Not so lucky. Bob's back on the phone withing minutes. This time, it's "Hi Grandma!"

No need to let you in on the details of this conversation as it was eerily similar to the one he had with mom. But as you can imagine, the decibel level increased even more for this convo. Note: I think it's very, very nice that he called his grandma. Really, I do. It's just the nature of the situation.

After the phone conversations were through, I thought we were in the clear.

Not so lucky.

The next conversation was with his seat-mate. Bob emphatically describes what he wants his future to look like. His ex-girlfriend who wanted a 'simple,' normal life? Bob's not a fan. He wants to go after the goods. Nothing wrong with ambition, but Bob needs a reality check.

"I want a sweet car and at least five pimped out houses - you know, like the ones on Cribs."

And if I thought it couldn't get worse, he adds, "And you can't find one girl who doesn't want that."

Wrong! Not. This. One.

By this time, the girl sitting next to me was also shaking her head at the ridiculosity of it all. Apparently she's not that kind of girl either. At least I'm not alone.

Ugh. Things are not always as they seem. I'm glad I was averted from sitting next to the cute guy ... the only reason I'm thankful for this cough.

Lessons learned. I survived. Back in my home sweet home. Life is good.