Found Art and the Fine Art of Eavesdropping

So, we went to Santa Barbara for the weekend. Good stuff. I wasn't feeling that well, though, and the girlfriend's shoulder was sore from the uncomfortable bed, so it was a bit of a slow-going weekend for us, but nice no less.

We went to the zoo, we ate at Sambo's, we walked around State Street, and went to dinner at a steak place called Chuck's. Eating, walking, and just enjoying time out of town. The bed and breakfast place was only so-so. I wouldn't recommend it, so I won't mention the name.

We went out to dinner on Friday night at this little pretentious Mexican restaurant, and, while the food was adequate, I was a little put-off by the service. We got seated and waited about 20 mintues for the waitress to take a drink order. Since I wasn't feeling well, it definitely bothered me more than it should have.

We were lucky enough to be seated behind a group of 3, an older couple and their only slightly younger friend. It became clear pretty quickly that the single man was in some stage of a divorce or at least a breakup. I learned more about these strangers than I wanted. We were sort of amused at how judgmental we got listening to his story, and had an insight that we seem to be most of the time when it is a situation like this... overhearing a conversation and plugging in our values and judging the speaker. I don't know if this is easier because we don't know the person, so we have this relatively objective viewpoint in the sense that we have no subjective connection to the content of the speaker's message. I mean we're subjectively placing our own values onto the speaker, but, we're evaluating it from a more objective point of view than were we connected in some way.

Anyway, we heard the whole saga from, "and then the accusations started. 'You wasted 2 and a half years of my life,' she said". Oh my. I can only imagine how unpleasant this poor bugger's breakup has been going. Botton line is though, we were treated to a show of colorful imagery of the demise of this relationship. I feel a little badly for him, but I also feel grateful to him in a way for giving us this unintended window into his current life. We could also have been sitting nearby hearing him speak of the wonderfully overwhelmed state he was in having just fallen in love. But, there's an artistic quality to it which ever way the conversation is going.
Listen. Project your own stuff. Enjoy.