I’m standing with my pseudo-little brother at the information kiosk/clock booth at Grand Central Station, waiting for a friend to show up. The information kiosk/clock booth is like the central meeting place in the central station (it’s a concentrically social centrality, you dig) – it’s where everybody agrees to wait for everyone.
This makes waiting for anyone kind of tricky, because every ten seconds an arriving person says “Hey!” in that “nice to see you” tone of voice to the people who are waiting, and so you’re always turning around thinking the person saying “Hey!” is the person you’re waiting for.
It’s very disorienting, and it can make you really light-headed if you let it.
I think if you were ever really lonely, it would be quite fun (in a horrible kind of way) to just stand in that spot for hours, and whenever you hear someone say “Hey!” you could pretend that person was happy to see you. For just a second, anyway.
The illusion of inclusion.