Tastee

I'm at the Tastee Diner in Silver Spring, using the wireless network. The Tastee is a 24-hour diner just a few blocks from the Silver Spring Metro station, and its internet connection is free (there's an annoying sign on the door about limiting use to 30min on the weekends, but I'm usually there so late it doesn't matter--it's 2:15 AM now). I'm almost finished analyzing Japanese Twitter users' speech acts. And now I'm completely distracted by the couple in the booth next to mine who just sat down.

The woman is pretty, if a little white-trashy, in her (late?) 30s. The guy has his back to me, is bald, and his neck looks thick with either muscle or fat. I'm somewhat sure they came here hot off the sheets, as they say.

She said as she sat down that she wanted coffee, and he said, "no, you don't want coffee, you should have tea..." Then the waiter came over and the guy said to his companion, "What you want, girl?" She ordered and also asked for coffee and the guy was surprised.

Just a few minutes ago, the guy asked, "How many times did we break up?" The woman said, "Seventeen." The guy said, a little sneeringly, "17? You write that in your diary? How do you know it was 17?" She said "I'm not really sure."

Pattern: when she says something, he repeats it incredulously. They talk about a celebrity, she says "he's my baby," and he says "he's your baby?!"

I have to put in my uncomfortable earphones to avoid the rest of this conversation disaster.