What Do We Do While We Wait In Line?

I felt my car door creak, opening onto the cold, damp parking garage, my ears immediately assaulted by a train passing by. I stretched out my legs after the extensive (and hilly) car ride, the sun just beginning to set. My friends and I meandered our way to the arena we were set to enter, only to find an infinite sea of people in line, also eagerly awaiting their entrance. Now in order for you to understand how extensive this line was, let me paint you a picture. This singular line of patrons extended around the perimeter of the arena, almost leading to the parking garage itself. Band vans were parked along the sidewalks, and thus we joined this sea of humanity. If you’re anything like me, my ants-in-the-pants syndrome makes it extremely difficult to stand in line. I’m also a world-class snoop, so you best believe that I look at everything and anything I come across. Slowly but surely, my friends and I did the line shuffle, meandering our way to the entrance. However, this was also at the time of night when the line began to reach a lull. It was at this precise moment that I heard someone loudly bellow an audio sample from the famous app, TikTok. This particular audio came from an original video of a sibling rivalry, where the mom clearly favors the younger brother, leaving the older one to shout, “Shut up mom, silence from you, you’re cut off.. from talking!”. Having heard this in the midst of quiet, I chuckled and bellowed it back, only to receive a vivacious response from the voice in question. I should also mention that I never did see their face. And so the silence was broken by TikTok audio fragments, chuckling in between, as we finally felt the warmth and bustle of the arena. While everyone else was waiting for the official event to begin, the show really began with two invisible comedians and a very loud TikTok sound.