Back Row Joes

I'm a back row Joe.  My preferred place to sit is where no one is behind me.  Why?  Because my hearing is messed up.  I can hear sounds - my hearing is great that way - but I don't always understand what is being said.  I should sit on the front row or somewhere up front, but I can't.  If I hear ANY little sound - whether it is someone chewing their gum with their mouth open, clicking a pen, popping knuckles, whispering - then my attention is drawn to that and I can't hear what is being said.  Pathetic.

So, if I'm sitting in class or a meeting and someone starts to whisper, I hear the whispering and then I struggle to hear what I need to hear.  I sit on the back row because I don't have someone right behind me dragging my attention to them.  If they are in front of me, I can't hear the little spspspspsp sounds and I can hear the lesson just fine.  Another BIG pet peeve of mine is being in a meeting and having people continually talking/whispering.  Shut up and listen!  I have a hard time getting my husband and child to sit still in church - it is so annoying! 

Really - just shut up and listen!  It is one thing for kids to be noisy - they are kids.  Adults?  There is no excuse.  Shut up and listen.

I'm whining about this because I went to my first Roundtable meeting tonight.  And I so wanted to turn around and tell two ladies to SHUT UP AND LISTEN!  They whispered the ENTIRE time.  They sat right behind me and I swear they maybe heard about ten seconds of the "lesson" the lady was giving. 

The lady asked if there were any questions or comments - I almost asked her to repeat what she said because I couldn't hear.  I was annoyed.

Seriously people - SHUT UP AND LISTEN!  You never know if you have another obnoxious Teri near you who can't stop listening to your whispered conversation.

(At least they were only talking about scouts and not anything personal!)