How to use a lift. Again.

01 Sep 2010, Posted by Cape Town Girl in CTG, The Rules, WTF, a good cause, 4 Comments

CTG goes to great lengths to ensure a pleasurable every day life experience. This includes living in a pleasurable apartment block, close to a pleasurable place of work, surrounded by pleasurable shops and food and people, ignoring all that is not pleasurable in the slightest way. Generally this works really well, but sometimes things happen that we cannot control. Very vexing, confusing things.

One such thing happened yesterday morning.

As I was stepping out of the elevator this morning, Vida & Crush fruit salad in hand, the lift doors opened and before I could step out ANOTHER WOMAN STEPPED IN. Stepped in, before I could get out. She might as well have asked me to slowdance, since I was moving out, and she simply couldn’t wait a SECOND longer to get in the lift, so she ended up moving towards me, effectively thrusting us together in some form of fumbling, flourescent-bulb lit embrace. Um. Can anyone say ‘awkward turtle‘?

I know I have covered this before, but I understand that change has to happen incrementally, so here’s another attempt to convey sound personal space principles. Basically,

WAIT FOR THE PERSON INSIDE THE LIFT TO GET OUT BEFORE YOU GET IN, or:

Why, you ask, wringing your hands in perplexed agony. WHY CTG WHY??? WE DO NOT GET IT??? WHY DO YOU HAVE THIS STRANGE PHOBIA? WHY DO YOU HATE PEOPLE? WHAT DID I DO?

Allow me to explain. If you get in before the person inside has got out, you effectively BLOCK them from getting out, and you create an awkward situation where I must do a little dance with you in order to shuffle myself to the exit while you shuffle yourself even further in. Adding to the confusion is the ‘which side to go???’ dilemma, which sees the two of us smashing into each other, touching each other way more than 2 strangers should ever have to, and me, the poor soul who is JUST TRYING TO GET OUT OF THE LIFT must make complex social and spacial calls in order to ‘get through’ this situation without having my personal space completely invaded.

So you see. Please. Just wait for whomever is in the lift to get out before you get in. I don’t think this is complicated.

Is it? Why do people do it???