Odd conversations

Sometimes, I take my lunch break and get a quick sandwich or something, then go over to a nearby Starbucks to get my Favorite Drink (venti shaken passion tea lemonade, unsweetened!).  Sometimes I’ll even get an evil pastry.  I like to watch people.  I sit in an inconspicuous spot and watch people through the windows, or sometimes inside the place.  It sits on a fairly busy pedestrian corner, so there is usually a lot of activity outside.  I especially like to do this on rainy or snowy days.  I don’t know why. 

I did this today, after a sandwich at Quiznos.  I sat down at one of the few tables available (the end of the semester brings a lot of college students with large binders of other people’s work to copy–or so it seems to me) with my drink.  While I was waiting for my drink, this odd couple behind me decided that the guy was going to go and get a chair while the woman waited for her drink.  There is one big easy chair in this Starbucks, which he took for himself.  He pulled-up a standard wooden chair near it for his friend/wife/whatever (I’ll just say “wife” from now on to be concise, though I suspect that they were actually husband and wife).  I sat down with my drink near them, and then she came to sit down.  They didn’t say anything for a while, then she said something.  The guy responded saying something to the effect of, “So-and-so is swine,” then, “I don’t want you getting involved with her.”  Then he proceeded to tell her that everyone in their apartment building or whatever is a cheat or a swine or somesuch, followed up by saying, “We just have to live with them because that’s the best we can afford.”  I felt bad about this, until I noticed that his wife was dressed in some older, well-worn clothes, and he was there in all kinds of flashy fashion-branded gear (including the sunglasses, which are absolutely necessary on a completely overcast grey day, when you’re inside, and the lights are dim, and there is no sun).  Then he went on to tell her, “I’ve got it.  This is the big one.  This is the one that is going to finally make us money.”  I’m thinking to myself, “Oh boy, here comes the scheme….”  She said something else (I can only guess what she might have said), and he responds with, “I’m the artist here.  I’m the artist.  You’re not the artist.  I’m the artist.  I know what I’m doing.  You’re not the artist,” and, “When I show this to Andy, that’s going to be it.  We’ll make thousands.  Thousands!”  She said something else (I couldn’t hear her, in case you couldn’t figure that part out yet), and he responded saying, “He’s going to like it.  He has to like it.  He’s going to take it.  This is his only shot at it.” 

The conversation was getting a little odd, so I decided it was time to leave.  This guy was completely strange in so many ways. 

There’s my fun story for the day.  More work tonight on the house is planned.  Paint stripping and sanding in the mix….

jonathan