Overheard Conversations

When I was at ULL, I took a fiction writing class because I wanted to take every opportunity to strengthen my craft and share work with peer groups. It ended up not working out, so I dropped it, but, I had a lot of fun right in the beginning.

The first day, the professor gave us an assignment: to sit down in a public place and write down the dialogue we overheard. We needed 3-5 pages. I sat down in Cafe Cottage and wrote for 3 hours. The results were hilarious, of course, and terribly sad.

I learned then that conversations don't usually sound like what you'd think. People tend to speak in segments, and taken out of context, it can seem like pure gibberish.

I've modified the exercise a bit, and have used it often but it never gets old so I figured I'd do it some more. I didn't worry about getting the entire conversation; in fact, the opposite is true: I only wrote down single lines overheard from individual conversations as I walked around the Blue Moon Wednesday night (during the cajun jam).

I plan on extending this writing by continuously adding new phrases overheard and will post a larger version in the future. For now, this short version gets the idea across. Coincidental poetry at it's best.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jamtalk

There's no way in hell I can find it
Hey hey hey!
I did wake up at 5 this morning you know
Is that the same bow?
Oh now we're getting fancy
I like it
That's the spirit. I like that spirit. That's the spirit I like.
Sometimes I just lay in bed and watch TV
There's something about it I really like
Have you ever heard of A Tribe Called Quest?
It's quite easy isn't it?
His skin is probably around here somewhere...
Hey I was still sleeping
The blackened catfish... It was...
BLOODY WANKER!
Girl you shake dat booty meat
I was talking to that Mexican girl you know the one drinking those fancy drinks
She can really dance hmm
Did she kick you in the face?
He likes guys with mustaches and beards I don't know why
I am sad but it'll be ok
Two Schlitz and cosmo, two schlitz and a cosmo
That's him. Yeah he's always like that
Got a light, love?
I've never danced that fast
There are two girls over there who don't have aaaaaaaaanyone to dance with hehehe
Look at my face!
Oh shit there goes another one!
Ready to go? Let's go.