I talk to old people sometimes, regularly in fact...

but have you ever been in a situation where it's been 2 hours, and they're not even telling stories, it's just mundane bullshit about how they picked out a pumpkin over and over again, but they don't even stop to take a breath, they just keep going and going. Yeah, how do you tell a miserable, lonely, old person that you just really have to go because frankly I don't feel like wasting hours of my life acting as Xanax?

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cherokeepatti · 61-69, F

I was a greeter at Walmart for over a year and I believe that some of the customers would come to the store just to get out of their lonely house and find someone to talk to, and I was the first person they saw...some would stand and talk for a half-hour.

Xuan12 · 31-35, M

@cherokeepatti Yeah, I get that too. I deal with it a lot. Like just now for instance. Sometimes it's a godsend to hear my radio go off.

cherokeepatti · 61-69, F

@Xuan12 Are you working in a store? I couldn't just walk away from them (unless I needed to clock out for lunch) because I had to stay at the door.

Xuan12 · 31-35, M

@cherokeepatti I work an ambulance. Sometimes people call and don't have a major problem, or any problem at all, they just wanted an excuse for a visit. So I try to be polite and if I can to listen for a little while. I fear I've encouraged her too much though. I overstayed.

cherokeepatti · 61-69, F

@Xuan12 Oh yeah. When I worked at the university there was a student who would say she was having a health episode and call 9-1-1. They'd send an ambulance. She lived on the 4th floor of a dorm that had no elevator and it was a metal staircase which made it hard to maneuver a stretcher with a person on it, a heavy young woman at that. They got wise to her and about the 5th time they were bumping the stretcher all the way down the stairs making quite a bit of noise as they carried her down. Last time she ever called.