Coffee shop or your living room?

Following on the heels of my last post about the woman who drove me so crazy at the dog park (I've seen her since then around the neighborhood, and she's crossed the street every time to avoid Barley, who has never been anything but nice to her dog. But I digress.), I'm continuing with a shamelessly self-indulgent "something that drives me crazy" post.

I was at Caribou near the end of the school year a few weeks ago, trying to grade students' final exam essays and working on my own homework. A woman came in the front door, passed by the counter without buying a thing and sat down in the chair next to me. She was talking on the phone the entire time, and her conversation only got louder when she sat down. I've blurred out her face, but mere words couldn't describe how close she was sitting. I should have taken video, too, to capture her voice. It resonated through the whole building.

I would have said something, but I couldn't get a word in edgewise. Heaven only knows how the poor person on the other end of that conversation felt! He or she was probably sitting quietly at a coffee shop across town. I sat there for at least another half hour, trying my best to get work done; her conversation continued and got louder, but she never purchased a thing.