Excuse me, can you repeat that?

Ever experienced one of those moments where you are talking to someone and realize they are talking far too fast or quiet for you to even comprehend anything that comes out of their mouth? I experience that on a daily basis, thanks to ear plugs. They are great at protecting my ears from the decibel levels of noise coming from the machines at the factory, and I wish they were greater at protecting my ears from the conversations that happen in the lunch room. Sigh. They are terrible when it comes to trying to have conversations with people right next the the heavy machinery. 

Most of the conversations consist of the following: 

Someone yells "Hey!"

"Aghvhminblekjsdfsdsdf."

"Oh! Haha! Globtvhitijkfldjgt!"

It seems like they always know what's going on. But seriously, it's all gibberish to me! I seriously wonder what these guys yell talk about. Like seriously, I didn't know the herjacquhn was part of the zynctoflivc. Okay, so maybe the conversations out on the floor aren't quite to that extreme, however it seems to be a game of broken telephone and then some. 

"Man, this weekend was crazy." can somehow come off as "Man, ice cream is lazy!" Now imagine having a face to face conversation, just like that. You understand about 85% of what the other person is saying, the rest consists of each of you leaning your ear in asking for repetition all while making obscure facial expressions. "Heh?" then after repeating yourself about 4 times, you realize it is just a lost cause and follow with a "nevermind." to which the reply is a clear and utter, "Okay!" Seriously? You couldn't understand half of what I was telling you but you understood "nevermind"? Are your ear plugs in too tight? I know mine are. 

Let's just try arm gestures. That's gotta work. A whole lot of throwing arms up (I throw my arms up in the air sometimes, saying ay-oh...I just had to -_-) and twirling fingers around like you expect someone to know what you're saying. I feel like I am playing freaking charades! 

Ugh, no I am not a giraffe. And no, I do not want to use the men's room. When that's all said and done, it seems like ASL would be a lost cause. Oh, you want to go to lunch? I am down. Yeah we all understand that!