As an east coast transplant, I am still utterly amazed that this sort of thing actually is normal on the west coast: someone is seriously shocked and hurt becau

As an east coast transplant, I am still utterly amazed that this sort of thing actually is normal on the west coast: someone is seriously shocked and hurt because someone else "shut you down" by saying "not right now" when you want to interrupt them to draw their attention to yourself. Not that they don't want to talk to you at all, they just want you to wait till they finish what they're doing first. This is apparently considered "socially awkward" in California. Not only that, this person then went off and introspected on the broader meaning of this "watershed moment," and concluded that "socially awkward" things like occasionally saying no to someone are sometimes actually OK and good...