Earrings used to be jewelry you wore on your earlobes but that's so OUT nowadays! Now it's IN to actually have your ear RING!

Ever notice how many people are running around with a phone in their ear? This drives me completely insane, I can't tell you how much. I want to rip them out every time I see one! Is this all really necessary? Is it just a convenience thing so you can be "hands free"? And what are you so busy doing with your hands all the time that you can't answer the phone?

Is it just me or is this world getting more impersonal by the minute? Yes, we are yapping constantly on cell phones, regular phones, internet, chat rooms, forums, emails. In fact, we are probably more connected to other people then at any other time in this world. And, yet, for all the talking that we do we are getting further and further apart. I mean, how important can you feel talking to someone with that gadget hooked up to their brain? They might as well say to you,"Yes, I'm listening to you, but I'm waiting for someone who's MORE worth listening to." Gee,thanks!

And what's with all these stores making their employees run around with doohickies in their ear? I thought I was at the McDonalds drive-thru one day but wait! It was Famous Footwear but yet the girl had the same headset on they wear at the takeout window. And this store was not big, by any means. If one employee really had to talk to another they could have crossed the store in 5 seconds. And what were they saying and whispering into that thing all the time?  "Toe Jams, aisle 4!"

Same thing in Border's books. Employees with ear-rings! This big old one-sided black earmuff hanging off the side of your head. You couldn't pay me to work there! At the end of the day their hearing MUST be distorted. And if that's not enough,I'm sure when they get home, they hook on the old Apple Pod, Blueberry, Boysenberry, or BLACKBERRY and make mincemeat of their hearing some more!  

Was in Office Depot last week and you guessed it! More Ear Rings! It's an epidemic. All I can say is that I get no better service with or without the earmuff since I'm assuming that is why they are there in the first place. I was standing in line for at least 10 minutes with a few other people while we watched 4 employees rustling around with one cash register, trying to change the tape. Why didn't one of them dial up their ear for help??? 

Office Depot sure lost their money on THAT headset purchase. AND a customer! 

I've read articles saying that "we don't know our neighbors anymore". Well,that's probably because they're too busy gabbing to someone else on their phone! No more hanging over the backyard fence and chatting like we used to. Remember that? No?

The world is cocooning. We are all our own little communties. We don't even need to leave our houses much anymore. Now you can work from home, take care of your banking,  your business and pay bills on the computer. You can even print your own postage and never have to set foot in the Post Office. And what about entertainment? They've made home theaters so nice, you don't have to go to the movies anymore,it's in your living room! And why go to the video store when NetFlix will deliver right in the mail! Food? Clothing? Furniture? Shoes? Appliances? Click your mouse over everything you need online and have it delivered!

Human contact? Huh? On a typical day I self serve gas, pick up a doorknob at Home Depot, scan and pay for it myself, self check out a library book and self pay and bag my dinner roast at the grocery store all without talking to a soul. Well, why would I bother? I've got plenty of people to talk to in my ear!   

One day in the near future I predict that the reason we don't know our next door neighbors is because we can't HEAR them and they can't HEAR us anymore. We're all down to one ear from all these whatchamacallits!

And that "huh?" will be the most popular word in the English vocabulary.