Greetings from Flagstaff, Land of Pines.

I am still waiting for The Muses or somebody like them to send me inspiration to get me out of this dearth of entries. I figured if I was by myself of a weekend this would give opportunity for something.  No such luck. 

I am finding this weekend by myself to be quite nice.  Sitting lonesome in restaurants hasn’t been too bad as I always have a book and my Kindle with me.  It has been a fascinating experiment to sit among restaurant goers who are in couples.  People seem to have the supposition I am too engrossed in my reading to hear them; they make no effort to carry on conversations in discreet tones.  As a consequence I’ve overheard several  humdingers some of them far more fascinating than what I am trying to read. 

Male/female couples have a tendency for the man to talk to the woman in what sounds like bossy-boots mansplaining.  I wonder why the women don’t speak up but they don’t. They merely nod their heads while saying ‘hmmm’ which makes me wonder if they are only pretending to listen. What conversations I have overheard haven’t been interesting, particularly the politics. At lunch over a bowel of ramen soup while reading Pepys diary (now there’s a combo!) I heard a gentleman explaining Captain Bone Spurs cleverness about the Chinese while said gentleman’s presumed wife looked like she was ready to drop dead into her dragon roll.  He ended with his prediction (conviction) two weeks after Herr Furor leaves office Melania will file for divorce mark his words.  If she does she’s a sensible woman but this doesn’t strike me as supportive of cleverness of Orange Blossom to have a third (or is it a fourth?) marriage fail. 

Last night at an Italian place while eating eggplant parmesan (disappointing again!)  I overheard another couple discussing whether or not to divorce or merely separate.  A few times the mister sent out signals he would be OK to have a mistress. Either his indirect speech acts weren’t registering with her or she was completely ignoring them.*  I wanted to lean over and say “God’s death are you two playing tennis? Just say you want an open marriage and is that OK to try?” 

Two men eating together have boring conversations as all they ever talk about is business or sports. In contrast two women to themselves talk about their woes.  At one meal (breakfast) I had one set of each on both sides of me so it was hard to focus on my eggs and my reading.  To their credit the men seemed to gotten some things done while the women ended breakfast without resolution what to do with their irksome mates. 

Today I may be bold as to not have a book with me at lunch to see if my neighbors keep quiet or talk less.  

the-essential-guide-to-dining-alone

 

*Which is why we use indirect speech acts: it gives folks the ability not to have direct conversations that would be possibly damage.