Went out to eat tonight and heard three distinct conversations that distracted me from my book, so quickly adjusted and made some frantic notes; these are mostly verbatim. The speakers in 1 and 3 are middle-aged white men; the speaker in 2 is a young woman about 25 or so.
1
"No, that's not what I'm saying ... No, if you just listen ... I'm saying, when did he find out she had breast cancer, that's all ... It would make a big difference ... No, I was just saying--I mean, asking--when did he know? It would make a big difference if she told him she had breast cancer and then he said he was leaving her, or if he said he was leaving her and then she said she had breast cancer, see what I mean?"
2
"He just kept yelling at us until lights out--and he knows as well as anybody that personal hygiene time doesn't even start until "lights out!" But he just kept us there, kept yelling at us ... No, I see what you mean, no, we don't sleep together, I mean, in the same barracks or tents; we have our own place where we sleep. We get up at 5:00 AM and we work out with them, I mean, we all work out together, but no, we're not anywhere near the men. I hate working out; I absolutely hate it. But let me tell you about the party--it was just us, mainly, my unit, because we're going back in a week--what do you mean, they can't do that, get real, of course they can do that--but Cathy brings him to the party, and we're not sure if they're, you know; but anyway, this guy is so creepy, he's wearing boots and a black t-shirt, and his army cap, nobody wears that. But his eyes are just dead, a completely sociopathic thing going on there, let me tell you, he doesn't respond to any of us, except to just stare. When somebody makes a joke he just stares at the person; and finally someone says, like, Dude, what do you do, man? and he says, "Special Forces. I kill people." In this monotone, just staring. Boy, that ratcheted things up a notch or two! It was like a movie, except it was real. And we'd all been over there; I'm not saying we've all killed people because we haven't, but we've all been over there. So he just keeps saying "Special Forces" over and over, and not much else, for the next half-hour, let me tell you, guys are getting tense. Finally this guy Jason, who's a friend of a guy in my unit, and I figured knew the guy, says, "You're recon, man; I'm Special Forces, and it's a whole different kind of killing." Yes! It was very tense--I mean, we talk about Ft Hood all the time--and, well, it was tense. Everybody there was "on alert," if you know what I mean. So the guy stands down, then he says to Cathy, let's split. But Cathy calls him the fuck out! In front of everybody! She says, "I don't know you, man. You're eyes are dead, there's no light in them. You never laugh at anybody's jokes. I'm not going anywhere with you, man." And then the dude leaves.
3
"Well, I think the greatest game I ever watched would have to be the one against the Chargers ..."
"Yeah, oh yeah. That was a great one."
"Oh sure, the Chargers. Classic game."
"It was so cold ... I heard it was like minus-59 degrees windchill for that one. Now that's cold."
"Yeah, that's really cold."
"Colder than cold. Really cold."
"I don't know if you remember this, but a few young men in the stands took off their coats and their shirts--they were naked--they'd written letters on their chests, to spell 'Bengals,' I think ..."
"Boy, I bet they were cold."
"Really cold."
"And one of them died. At least one of them. I know several were hospitalized. Now there's a real fan, a guy who'll die for his team."
"Yeah, a real fan."
"Hall of Fame fan."
"Do you guys ever go down to a game?"
"Nah, too much trouble."
"Me neither. Too much trouble. Parking, all that. Plus it's always cold."
"You ever go?"
"Oh hell no. See things better on TV anyway, right? And the beer's cheap."
"Yeah, TV's great."
