Lessons Learned

Have you ever been out to eat with a friend or two, and the conversation seems to dwindle to an awkward silence where all you can hear is the obnoxious people at the table across from you? Everyone at your table is unusually silent, just listening to the adjacent table laugh and giggle loudly about "how many Jewish people they know", or one's "gay brother's boyfriend". Some form of this situation occurs to everyone, I'm sure. It happened to me and my roommate tonight while out eating sushi. Normally she and I can't keep our mouths shut. But tonight, across from a party of seven or eight, we had no words. Do you ever wonder why these rare restaurant silences occur?

Here's my two cents: You are quiet because you and the rest of your party are thoroughly annoyed with the overbearing party of seven or eight. Since you're too busy formulating a way to indirectly yet conspicuously show these people how inappropriately over-the-top they are, you cannot even think up a casual conversation of your own. So instead, you grit your teeth and look across the table to your company, and when you lock eyes a complete conversation is transported. A conversation relating to how you would love to tell them that Jewish people are as uncommon as plaid shirts nowadays, and that no one else is curious about your gay brother's boyfriend.

On the other hand, it is one of my guilty pleasures to eavesdrop on surrounding conversations occasionally (especially in New York--eccentric people=great conversations=this blog). But it's one thing to have a conversation being tapped, and another to advertise your business to everyone in the restaurant including the dishwasher in the back.

Actually, now that I think about it some more, perhaps I've been guilty doing this. In fact, I'm positive because I've glanced at nearby tables at times to find that they are silently eating their food--with the same energy of muted insanity as I had tonight. Whoops.

Lesson Learned: Don't be that party at a restaurant. Have a good time, but let's not be attention whores!