Eavesdropping

I love eavesdropping.

When you're a kid, your parents always tell you to mind your own business. When you're in a public setting, you're always told not to stare, not to eavesdrop, and use good manners. When you're a kid, you're always drawn to the conversation of grown-ups in the room like moths to a light bulb, and parents find this about as annoying as the pesky moth. Somehow, this tenet never stuck with me. I'm sure people are not surprised. And I love interjecting my opinion when given the go-ahead.

Last night, I again visited my local watering hole. I really think given all the times that I spend there that I should do research or something on human behavior, or a mind boggling sociology experiment. It would probably be a better use of my time. Then again, at times the "control group" in this environment is anything but in control.

Back to eavesdropping. At one point in the evening, I was sitting alone and two guys were sitting next to me. One of them was a conversation commando. I don't think that his friend ever got a word in edgewise. Rather, he nodded his head in agreement, but it was obvious he was getting bored with the conversation.

It was about poker.

I don't understand poker. I don't want to understand poker. And I really don't care about the strategy of poker. The only strategy I would have is "win." This dialogue dictator talked about hands he played, strategies he used, the ineptness of competitors that he played against, the ins, the outs, and the theories of poker, for 35 minutes. And somehow, I still listened. Yes, I'm an eavesdropper.

His friend was a saint. He sat there and listened patiently. Yet, he never said a word, except for an occasional "uh huh" or "yup."

I would have preferred waterboard torture.

I would like to think that my conversations with people are very interesting. I would like to think that I'm interesting. And I have the biggest fear that I would be a dullard like the poker guy last night. "I HOPE I'm not THAT guy," I said to myself as I sat there continuing to eavesdrop.

Perhaps I'm more cerebral. And I know I'm judgemental. In fact there were two girls that sat in the same seats as the Hoyle duo, that I observed greeting other friends, and said something as they greeted each other that was apparently funny to them. It was something like "we were wondering where you were," to which the response was, "we knew you were here." I really don't remember anything else, simply for the fact that it was ordinary, and very unfunny. What was extraordinary though was watching the one girl laugh hardily at her friend's witticism.

I thought to myself, "simpleton" and proceeded to watch the football game rerun that was on TV.

Whenever you want to eavesdrop, it seems, you never get the juicy details or conversational tidbits that you wish to overhear, like some scandal (or as K. Andreah spells it, "scandle"), or some information about you that you can hold over one's head in the future as ammunition.
Not that I'm vengeful or anything. I just like to be VERY informed.

Eavesdropping: information at it's finest?