Yelling at the youngins

Today I took the train in to the city, then took the tram to the hospital. It’s about double the time as it is to drive, but it was really nice to do some work, read my book, and stare out the window along the way. Sometimes, the time save is worth more than the productivity but today, I decided to take public transport. Honestly, the main driver of this decision was that my return trip would be during rush hour and I really don’t like traffic. Plus, the time advantage of driving is lessened.

Anyway, why am I writing so much about my thought process about car vs train when clearly, there’s a story to be told about yelling at the youngins based on my post title. Well, I shall regale you…

On the MUNI, a few stops in, a group of young men boarded. I call them this because my aunt was horrified one time when she yelled at a teenage driver who nearly sideswiped her while she was road biking. She caught up to him at a red light and launched into him, starting with, “Young man…!” Lol. Not at the sideswipe of course, but at the “young man” = you’re an old lady.

So, a group of young men boarded and were playing music on their speaker. It was actually somewhat delightful because they were playing Jingle Bell Rock as we were traveling along the wharf. It felt delightfully holiday, only-in-SF type of vibes. Well, it became less charming when it turned to techno that they were playing super loud to hear it over the train tunnel noise. They knew they were in the wrong because one of them was sort of trying to get the other guy to turn it down. As we pulled into the station (and it was really loud), I turned around and loudly said (because of the competing volume), “Guys, can you turn it down a bit?” while making miming gestures of turning down a volume knob. See!? Old lady. Volume knobs don’t exist anymore. They did right away and were laughing a little bit, but it was all ok. I don’t think I was getting too many “Ok, boomer” type of comments but at the same time, I am old and hard-of-hearing so who knows?

But guess what!? This wasn’t the only time I corrected people this afternoon. I was on a roll! I was lecturing about 24 medical students this afternoon. My talk was at the end of the break, everyone had sat down, people were conversing but I started with my intro since we had a schedule to keep to. Most people stopped talking within a few seconds but there were two groups that were continuing to talk. Like, not even trying to wind down or realize that you know what? They could continue later. So I just flat out said, “Ok, time to stop talking. We need to get started.” There were a couple of eyerolls and slight Who does she think she is? noises but I will tell you who I am. I am the person whose turn it is to talk. And, since this is my blog, I will tell you how much I cared about those eyerolls and noises: not at all. To be frank, because this is my blog and I feel like making the point in an uncouth way, I gave/give zero fucks.

And don’t get me wrong. Obviously I care since I said something about it. But I don’t care if someone was offended that I explicitly asked for respect as their invited speaker.

On a nicer note, I had to do some online training for the General (city hospital). One of the units was for certification of the hospital as baby-friendly. The training module was fine but contained a gold nugget of a photo:

OMG! Look at that little baby? I think he looks hilarious. It’s such a startle reflex response. Someone might need to check if the big brother is being baby-friendly.