I came in at about 12 mins before 7 o'clock in the morning. I think I was the 20th guy there. Today is the day I filed an application for my social security ID card. It was long overdue since I have been a worker ant for more than 6 years now. But years of procrastinating and poor time management coupled with the fact that I always just make my deadlines by the skin of my teeth lead me to this day. You see, I never was a crowd person coz I always find some people weird that they creep me out. You can imagine how I feel about sitting in a room full of strange strangers... let me tell you about the characters I encountered.
I surveyed the room and saw "the box" where we [applicants] put our E-6 forms face down. The logic was for the first ones there to get their papers processed first. Like what the posted announcement said, I placed my "duly accomplished" form in the box and went to sit down to ready my "two valid ID's. People rarely sit beside each other on these occasions so there where a lot of gaps between applicants. I elected to sit on the third row, and as I was making my way to an empty seat, some ladies would put their bags on the seat next to theirs. Probably trying to say "there are lots of other free seats, do not take the one next to me..." as if! I sat down between a 50ish woman and a middleage overweight fellow who smells like toothpaste. I noticed that there were only a few forms in the box before mine and that most of the people who came before me hadn't put theirs in.. There was a big glaring announcement infront of us, how could they miss that? People started lining up to put their forms in the box FACE UP [don't these people know how to read?] One particular lady caught my attention. instead of putting her form on top of the pile, she had the gall to lift some of the papers and put hers ahead of most of us. I was amused at the pathetic effort to get one up on other people.
A lot more was coming in. A particularly annoying girl in her 20's couldn't stop pacing and shifting seats. She went to one of the list of postal code in a bullettin board and then to another. [the list were the same] she then went back to the box to get her form. She must have realized she put the wrong zip code. True enough, other people went shifting between the lists and checking their forms. Everyone was on their mobile pretending not to care about what anyone else was doing. And yet, they mirror everything anybody does. The constant beeping and ringing can drive anyone nuts. The girl infront of me didn't car to put her phone on silent letting everyone suffer her "pogi-rock band" message tone. A few seats to her right where two guys dressed in smart casual attire. They had matching tumblers and they have their sunglasses on their heads like rudy project models or something. They are what you would now call "metrosexuals." in gym-enhanced physique. They were also on their mobile phones and couldn't stop giggling like little girls who knows a secret. I'm not saying they're gay, just because they can't stop touching each other's arms and keeps getting lost in each others eyes and the only girl who was with them was seated 3 seats away with no one in between... no, I'm not saying they're gay. [Disclaimer: Im not a homophobe. I have gay friends whom I respect so much. Some people - gay or otherwise - just don't have a sense of propriety in public.]
Another character is the one I named block head. A 6-foot tall guy who constantly pestered the lady in the booth to ask if his name will be called soon. He also didn't bother to bring his own pen and had to go around to borrow one from. He hurriedly grabbed another guy's pen and did not even say thank you afterwards. Jerk. I couldn't recall the other colorful toons I encountered. Maybe when i start having nightmares, I will. I got out of there at half past eight, only an hour and a half... It felt a lot longer than that.
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