One thing that bugs me...

...people who are in the way, more precisely, people who are in my way.


It's like some people are still little kids, completely oblivious to their surroundings. You know, when you son is goofing around, walking backward showing off to his little sister, and is alerted at the last minute to the fact that he's about to plow into into a bunch of old ladies coming the other way !

The blockers typically fall within the following demographic categories:

• Teenagers. Caught up in their own mini ecosystems of he said / she said.
  
• College students. Nothing is more important that solving world peace and having a cigarette directly in front of the main entrance to your office.
  
• Visitors. See that map over there on the wall ? Give it a try.
• Shoppers. Don't these people know that there are people actually trying to get somewhere not just exercising their ICollectMoreMilesThanYou Visa card?
• Old people. God bless 'em, they're just slow.

And then there's the blocking technique or positioning:

• You're on your way to a meeting cutting through the department store and you come up behind the 5 person wide trolling shoppers. Hit the breaks before you step on their trailing scarves.
• You excuse me / excuse me past chatty teenagers on the escalator only to me met at the top by a gaggle of visitors who haven't got a clue which way they are going. Watch out the bodies are starting to pile up !
• You're rushing out of the subway station, spinning through the exit turnstiles and immediately blocked by the after-school-stand-in-circle-crowd discussing how unfair Jenny Petriedish's biology test was.

Here are the rules:

• In North America, like driving, walkways follow the stay-on-the-right rule.
• When on the escalator, stand on the right, walk on the left.
• When traveling along a walkway, do not just stop. Perhaps take a glance around and slowly make your way to the side of the walkway to evaluate your next move, check your map or to kiss cute Johnny Pencilcase from Math class.
• Heads up please when you're walking and talking on your mobile phone or texting on your Blackberry (I must admit I'm a little guilty here - see funny from Rick Mercer).
• Please put the tunnel-vision parka hoods down when you're inside. Maintaining a good amount of peripheral vision is key.
• If you walking your pet or perhaps even have you children on a tether, don't let that tether out more than 12 inches in crowded places.
  

I imagine a corollary to this post is how to handle crowds in unavoidable situations such as airports, the Santa Claus parade, Walt Disney World (no, I haven't forgotten about writing about our trip), Christmas shopping, rock concerts, the loo during intermission of a hockey game, the subway at rush hour (my next stop)...

Heads up !