Monday, August 1, 2011

Shout Out to my Coworkers

I talk about slugging at work a lot. Partially because they're the first people I see after my morning slug experience when I just have to tell someone my stories, and partially because of the reaction I got from most of them when I first mentioned it. Most of them had never heard of it, and when I explained how it works, they were somewhat baffled that people would get into cars with strangers like that. But now a couple of them just think it's hilarious how much I love to talk about slugging. And my one coworker, E, loves the idea of slugging in general, I think. 

She told her husband that I had slugs in my car one morning, and his reply was, "Ew, did she leave her windows open when it rained?" I honestly wasn't surprised because before I'd heard about slugging, I'd probably have thought something similar. 

One of my coworkers, B, told me that I got in her head so much that one afternoon she went and tried to pick slugs up at the Pentagon because she lives in Springfield, too. Now she picks up slugs every afternoon. Her first experience wasn't a great first impression, though. She came to me the next day complaining because she took three riders and the two in the back knew each other and talked the whole way home. So loud that she couldn't hear her radio. I had to laugh because that has never happened to me, and of course it happened to her on her debut slugging trip. I made sure to tell her that that is a rare occurrence, and she should have just turned up her radio or something. Slugs aren't supposed to talk unless the driver talks, per the Slugging Etiquette/Rules, but on a rare occasion I've ridden with slugs who knew each other as well and they'll talk to each other anyways. 


While we were having this discussion another coworker came in and said that, oh yes, he'd tried slugging before. The one time he tried it he said that he had someone tell him to change his radio station while he was jamming to Twista. Hilarious image, first of all, but I had to laugh at him, too. I play country music every afternoon and no one's ever "told" me to change my radio station or turn it down. That's another one of the rules of etiquette that slugs are supposed to follow. It's not their car, they can't tell you what to play. I told him he should have just said no, or turned it down a little. I try to keep my music down to a certain level, but I'm not going to put on boring WTOP radio because it makes me want to fall asleep.

I told B she should give it another try because it's really beneficial and most riders aren't like the first ones she had, and now she picks up slugs every afternoon, I believe.