The middle of the story

Writing about overhearing conversations on the street isn't anything new. There's entire sites and sections of sites devoted to it. I've written about it. Who doesn't love eavesdropping on a bit of a conversation; coming into the radius of some stranger's life for just a few seconds and getting a tiny peek into their existence and then judging them on it? No one, that's who.

But even better than the overheard conversations are the pieces caught out of context. These ones don't make any sense and only give you the briefest hint of the person's personality. The fact that you don't know what they're talking about just makes this eavesdrop that much better.

All this is leading up to the guy sitting on the stoop of an apartment building on 17th street talking on his cell phone that I passed by as I walked home:

So he was having sex with her and it finally gave so then they had to...

So they had to what?! Buy a new bed? Take him to a chiropractor? See a divorce laywer? Finally accept his/her homosexuality? WHAT?!

Overheard in DC

The list of my favorite things that I've heard from passers by on the streets of my neighborhood just got a new entry. While walking back from breakfast on Saturday morning, I passed by a couple who was looking every bit the overweight, out-of-place tourists, complete with fanny packs. The woman was talking on her phone, and saying in an incredulous voice that couldn't be described in type:

"We're walking around! Ha! On the street!!"

Now, it's entirely possible that I'm taking this grossly out of context. Maybe it was an inside joke, maybe there was a perfectly understandable explanation for it. But it sounded (and, frankly, looked) for all the world to me like a person amazed at being able to use her feet for honest-to-God transportation. I really hope that I misunderstood, because it's depressing to think that suburban society has come to the point where walking is a novelty.