Small Talk: How small tasks are accomplished
My wife and I went to a restaurant one night at about 8:00. It was, of course, empty.
A man lead us to a table, gave us menus and began to talk about the weather.
We nodded and smiled.
He continued to talk about the weather.
We began to agree with him. Yes, it is very hot.
He continued to talk about the weather.
It was not until we began making our own observations about the weather that we were able to move away from said topic.
We had a fantastic three course meal of fried octopus, squid, fish, rice, vegetables, and a volcano of chocolate. The meal lasted about two and a half hours. During this time the only people who entered the restaurant sat at the bar, ordered wine and talked to our waiter.
To us it was time to go. I picked up the check and approached the bar. The waiter, who clearly was not now nor ever should have been referred to as ‘my’ or ‘our’ waiter, was chatting with two men. I realized that in order for me to pay the check I would have to enter the conversation.
We spoke about how we were all doing, what each of us did or was going to do, where we were from, what were our favorite beers and why, where were the beers from, what made a good beer, how and why I knew Spanish, how old we were, who was the beautiful woman sitting at that table over there waiting twenty five minutes for me to pay this bill.
