Things Heard in a Cafe

It's Thursday - whoot! And I have to say that this week is going very fast. I think it's a combination of being on a roll with my writing and loving my new job. The only shame is that I have to revert back to the old one and teach a class next week - yuck! But it was part of my transfer agreement - I teach the Dallas workshop for Nov and Dec if they don't have coverage. And of course, they don't have coverage. But at least I'm not traveling to do it.

I had an extraordinary week with the writing so far, although I'm sorta taking this morning off from rough draft to take care of some business stuff for writing and run an errand. BUT, I got five pages done on Monday, TEN on Tuesday, and eight yesterday, so I am almost at my weekly goal of five a day anyway. Not that I'll be taking tomorrow off, but I'll be shifting gears. I've been working on another proposal for another line/publisher - a non-mystery, category idea. If I get news on it, I'll let you know.

So starting tomorrow - or probably today at my lunch hour - I'll be shifting gears back to Ghost-in-Law, in the hopes that I can finish and get it in early. That would be fabulous!

So I was working in my cafe yesterday and there was a guy talking that just made me want to laugh. I was sitting in the very back (because my favorite server worked in the back yesterday) and that's usually where groups congregate - pulling tables together and having church/work type "meetings" over breakfast. So the group meeting next to me was a bunch of carpet cleaners and here's the conversation I overheard:

Carpet Cleaner Boy is stating how angry it makes him that people don't want to hear the truth about their carpet and what needs to be cleaned. (My guess is they really don't like to hear about the cost, but CCB is young and sort of stupid, as you'll see). So he goes on to say:

"I don't get it. If you go to see your dentist an he's like 'why aren't you eating right and exercising' and 'you need to take vitamins,' you don't get angry and complain - heck you pay him to tell you that then leave."

Hmmmm - DENTIST? When's the last time your dentist talked to you about diet and exercise?

And why exactly is CCB so intense over carpet? It's not war or famine, and I'm pretty sure that unless you have an extreme case, it can't kill you. Not to mention that it's a heck of a lot easier to replace than your teeth.

So then the server says something about being conservative and CCB says he doesn't know the word - which may have been literal - but I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. So apparently for him, cleaning carpet is the ultimate in thrills and entertainment. Can you imagine what would happen if he got to INSTALL it?????

And I hear this sort of conversation all the time - people so obviously wrapped up in one small aspect of their lives (and usually a fairly unimportant one in the big scheme of things), and I have to wonder if they have it so much easier than the rest of us that are walking around in a three-dimensional world of layers and technicolor.

What do you think?