Rant on rude behavior, and more

So often, I think I have human behavior down to understandable levels. Then, someone comes along and totally throws me.

Today, I was attending a regional meeting of folks who do what I do for the dollars. Because it was a regional gathering, we met on a college campus in a largish auditorium. There were 250-300 seats and only about 50 people in attendance. I arrived early, and sat in the front row with several folks who work in the home office who I know. As people filed in, they spread out -- taking up a seat for themselves and one or two seats for their stuff. As is the norm for any classroom type setting, most folks filled into the rows farther back. By the time the meeting started, I was the only field person on the front row. Each row had several people - but in rows with 25-30 seats each, no row had more than 10 people in it.

Several minutes after starting, two late arrivals filed in -- and came down to the front row. They sat with probably 8-10 seats between me and them. Fine. Hardly noticed them.

At the first break, the two late comers moved their stuff into the seat I had been sitting in. When I returned from the bathroom break, I found that my stuff was being crowded out and my seat taken. I pointed the fact that I had been sitting in that seat to the interlpers. They said they'd fix the situation - and moved to sit in the seat directly next to me. These seats were closer together than movie theater seats. There were plenty of seats around they could have taken. Then, the woman directly next to me started vying for elbow space.

At lunch time, I returned from eating to find they had once again piled their belongings into my seat. So, I picked up my stuff and moved to a seat in the next row back. When they returned, they gleefully exclaimed "good" when they saw they had pushed me out.

At the afternoon break, the woman who literally took my seat turned around and said "you didn't need to move" -- I asked her what she expected me to do when she'd taken over my seat? She lamely said she had to move because she wanted to see better. I just glared and looked away. And she reacted as if I were being rude. I totally don't understand that reaction.

On the flip side of the annoyance, I had forgotten how much I really enjoy driving. I like seeing the country side. I like having some good tunes on and singing along.

And, tonight, a special shout out to Bo-Bo, the a-rab.