Posted by Pfinstegg on January 16, 2004, at 20:17:09
In reply to Re: Encounters..., posted by Karen_kay on January 16, 2004, at 19:51:28
The whole thing was inadvertent. His wife, who did not know us,( or we her) came in alone, sat down, and introduced herself in a friendly manner- by first name only, as all the other people at the table were doing. After about five minutes, HE came in and sat in the one remaining chair- between her and my husband. What happened first is that my husband whispered to me, "this calls for small talk. I can talk for 20 minutes about the leak in our roof, and the complicated way the water runs through the eaves so that it's made a hole in the ceiling at the opposite end of the house." I was already blushing, and then I got a fit of giggles because of my husband's plan to be intensely boring. HE was shocked and embarrassed, too, I think, but he rose to the occasion, and was very friendly and talkative- all carefully neutral but interesting. He talked a lot about recent club lectures, books he had liked, places he had travelled to. He never asked a single personal question of either of us- I think that was his main concern- but, in fact, the conversation was fun. I of course was sneaking looks at his wife, who remained very detached from the whole thing, comparing myself to her, of course! I couldn't get anwhere with that, really, as she was dark- haired and short, and I am 5' 11 ' and blond. And, yes, I was so careful about the sizes of the bites put in my mouth, my elbows, posture, etc. I turned into a caricature, really, smiling, nodding, agreeing, trying to say nice neutral things. It was a very odd experience, and one I wouldn't want to repeat. But I did learn something from it- he is a really nice man, and he treated us graciously and warmly in a really unexpected situation. My husband liked him a lot!
Pfinstegg
poster:Pfinstegg
thread:301442
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040116/msgs/301842.html