Who's that girl?

"Who's that girl…the crazy one that just jumps into whatever random conversation is happening around her, at any time?"

That would be me.

I have a problem. Ever since we've moved back to Minnesota, I have a HUGE eavesdropping problem and I haven't been able to shake it.

During our first week of school after we moved, I was walking across the "Quad" or "Plaza" (at the moment I can't actually remember what they call the area where all of the moms have to wait for their kids to come out of school). And there were two moms that were having a conversation, as they passed one another, about the weather. And guess who had to chime right in and give her two cents? Yep. That would be me.

And whenever I try to work at a coffee shop, I find myself accidentally tuning into all of the conversations going on around me. Last week, a law student named Ryan was interviewing for a clerkship with a solo practitioner. I don't know what the lawyer thought, but he sounded good to me and I would've hired him.

And a few weeks ago, I accidentally "attended" a coffee date with two young moms. Mom A was really worried about her 18 month-old's fear of swimming lessons. Mom B was worried about something with her in-laws. And I was worried that neither of them seemed to be watching the toddler of Mom A who was sitting next to me eating crackers off the floor. Thankfully, I had the good sense to keep my mouth shut during their chat. But in my head, I was an active participant in their entire conversation, answering their questions and telling them not to worry about going away on their upcoming girls' weekend. But how, maybe they shouldn't let their kid wander up to strangers and eat crackers off the muddy floor.

I've tried finding tables off to themselves. But last week a young college student and I found tables next to each other at the same time, and it would have just been awkward to pick my stuff up and move. No problem, I thought, she's by herself anyway. But then her date showed up. I never would have expected to end up on a first date with someone at 8:30 in the morning on a weekday, but there I was. I heard all about how cool it was to see the Dalai Lama speak in person. And I listened as they discussed majors and families and career ideas.

I never realized how noisy conversations could be. But I guess it makes sense that after only hearing French, English would just seem to be noisier. In Belgium, I used to love writing in coffee shops. I was productive, typing out scenes with impressive word counts. But everything around me was happening in French. I had to concentrate hard to understand everything, so eavesdropping was just too much effort. I got spoiled.

And now, I have to remind myself that no one is actually talking to me. And strangers probably don't care what I think about x, y or z.

Sigh. Maybe I should just go find a library if I really need to write a scene without distraction. A library with posted "no talking" signs.