I have mentioned before certain behaviors of mine one might classify as partly obsessive-compulsive. After my lunch experience today, I feel compelled to speak of another such eccentricity. While I am certainly not agoraphobic by any stretch of the imagination, there are certain situations where groups of people bother me. I consider it more a violation of my personal space and it happens in very specific locations. A crowded club will not bother me, but being in a retail store filled with tons of children makes me uneasy.

Likewise, there are other situations where I am not so much bothered or uncomfortable as I am pissed. I decided to head over to McDonalds for lunch not having been there in a while and somewhat wanting to have a Big Mac in particular (grease was calling my name today). After receiving my tray of food, I went about the restaurant looking for a table that would afford me some privacy (as much as one could possible have in a busy lunchtime McDonalds). It was busy inside, but most of the customers were taking their food away, leaving most of the tables inside vacant. I made my selection, a small table for two in a part of the restaurant only near one elderly couple quietly eating. Halfway through eating, a table of four younger guys sits at the table right next to mine. Never mind the fact that there were six other tables in that area NOT immediately next to me. The space between the tables was practically non-existent so it was as if I was sitting with them at their table, forced to be an unwilling spectator in their asinine conversation.

Needless to say, I was rather displeased with this and so ate my food as quickly as possible so that I could seek the shelter and asylum of my car. Now, if some of you are thinking that this behaviour is the strangest thing you have ever heard, consider this: if you go to a movie theatre and you find yourself to be the only person there, would it not make you uncomfortable or at least reasonably pissed off if some other people came in and sat right next to, in front of or behind you?