thursday march 12

today i was walking down the street about 20 paces behind a mother pushing a stroller with a crying baby inside. the baby was really giving its vocal chords a workout, to the point where it was extremely annoying to be walking behind the two. it looked as if i had three options:

1. stop at a store, kill a couple minutes, then come back out, having given them a bit of a headstart.
2. maintain my same pace and be annoyed until we went our separate ways.
3. speed up, pass them, and pull away from the noise.

given my usual quick walking pace, and the fact that i'd already made all the stops i needed to, i elected to go for option #3. this proved more difficult than i thought, as it turned out the mom was maintaining a pretty fast clip herself -- probably trying to get out of public with the earsore as soon as possible. finally, just as i was gaining significant ground, she paused for a minute to direct baby-talk inside the stroller, allowing me to blow past them both and finally escape the racket.