Inspired by Kathy Riordan’s recent post on a maddening conversation she overheard, "Shoot Me Now," and Nick Carraway’s fanciful “Overheard,” I thought I’d try to transcribe from memory a conversation that I overheard by chance just this afternoon.
The speakers are a couple in their 30’s who’d just come off the hiking trail near our house, along with a group of their friends. They were strangers to me, but I can tell you that this is a very Bay Area type of conversation to overhear!
MAN: I’m really trying to be connected here but you won’t let me. I couldn’t even enjoy the hike because of the way you were acting.
WOMAN: (Unintelligible murmur.)
MAN: I’m telling you how I feel. I’m trying to be part of the web of connection. I’m part of the universe, too. I wanted to have intimacy with everyone in the group today, but the way you’re acting, I just can’t do it. And it’s bad for everyone – for me, for you, for the baby. I tell you, I’m the most sorry for the baby right now. Because the way you are, she’s on track to end up just like you.
WOMAN: (Nervous-sounding giggle, then more unintelligible murmuring.)
MAN: (Exhalation of disgust and anger.) You know how sensitive I am. I just vibrate with everything. I can’t tune it out. I wish I could.
WOMAN: (Unintelligible murmur.)
MAN: (Voice rising) I’m telling you, if I keep getting this from all the women around me, I don’t know what I’ll do. I’m so incredibly angry.
WOMAN: (Unintelligible murmur with quizzical uplift to it.)
MAN: (Even angrier-sounding) It’s just that every woman I’m around lately is playing the same program. None of them trust men and I’m getting tired of hearing that tape. It’s the same program over and over and I’m sick of it. It wears you down. I‘ve been around for 2 million years and that’s a lot to carry around. I’ve had to endure a lot.
WOMAN: (Unintelligible murmur.)
What about you? Is there a conversation that you overheard that you’d like to share with us? Maybe even just a sentence or two that you riff on? (Feel free to quote one you heard years ago!) Put “Overheard” in your tags if you post one so we can all find it.
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Comments
John, well, you know, women are always more verbal than men.
You did a post inspired by mine? I'm honored. You absolutely don't suck.
so sad
i feel sorry for the kid, too
Thanks for passing this on, Silkstone. It's a classic! And yeah, being from California originally I can readily accept that it is one of many types of of Bay Area Conversation to overhear. Or Santa Cruz, for that matter.
As for your guy, hey, I'd be losing patience too if I'd had to put up with stuff I don't like for 2 million years. I bet he was way mellower back in the 60s or the Middle Ages.
Dianaani, I had the same thought about the kid.
Henry, I did feel that the length of time he's been dealing with human foolishness was really weighing on him.
Femme, it is, isn't it?
Abra, ditto my comment to Henry!
Roy, I agree.
Kit, thanks!
Scanner, yes, very different conversations. I've heard the one you hear, but only on the news when they interview people. I do find it odd how much that's the bottom line for those folks.
I pan to write a post soon based on a fragment i heard from a street guy talking to another here in my college town. He said "...o man, that's like dragon slay, man."
While my guys are at a whole stupider level below the sublime Marin lifestyle inanity you deliver here, I can't help wondering what the other guy said to trigger his remark. Shoes? a decent cup of coffee? got his brakes fixed?