I just saw this fair maiden here talking to a tree trunk, and since I'm an arborist I thought I could help translate.

I know I am not the only person who finds it tempting to listen in on conversations in crowded restaurants, stores, sidewalk or the like. Whether it be an particularly boisterous neighboring table, a drunken altercation, or a lovers' quarell in the middle of the mall I find myself entranced by the anonymous exchanges which surround me. Not in a creepy way, mind you, but a rather sociological one. When it comes to most confrontation-type situations requiring a "fight or flight" decision, I fly--everytime. So I find it interesting to observe those who stay around and stick it out. I also find how people approach conversations facinating: humor, story-telling, gossip... People-watching as a method of research, if you will.
Yesterday evening I was privy to the awkward, stilted exchanges of a first date. Questions beg to answered: Will he buy the tickets? Will she want popcorn? How will they fill the silence when they've finished with the introductions? For our couple, the answers were: yes, yes and the following:
Guy: You know, reading a play can be deadly. But seeing it acted out by real people, that's like 60 times better.
Gal: Yeah.
Guy: So.... have you read any good plays recently?
Gal: No, I don't really read plays. *giggle* I think the last play I read was in high school.
Guy: *overzealous and too loud due to the fact that he has something to talk about* OH MY GOD! We OVERREAD Romeo and Juliet in high school. And when I say "OVERREAD" I mean five or six times!
The talking kinda stopped at this point.

Given, many conversation taken out of context seem less intellectually stimulating then they might of at the time. This is not one of them. But I empathize with the socially inept. I once went on a first date where my companion didn't talk. Not. One Word. Except to order a soda at one of the best Italian dessert places in town and tell me upon returning home--when I was already adding "the mute" to my list of party tales--that he had a "wonderful time" (Yeah. I don't get it either). It was awkward. I babbled; cause, really, what else is there to do when your date has willingly handed his tongue over to a cat who then ran away with it?
As an undergrad, traditional dating didn't really work because there was a limited pool of applicants and the chance that you might see that guy (for instance, the mute) and have to talk (or mime) with him if the date/relationship was unsuccessful. As a graduate, the applicant pool is non-exsistant (dating undergrads is unethical--and they're all very young; additionally, the town we live in is very, very small). However, ocal issues aside, active participation in the "cosmic dating process"is a must (See I'm With Lucy). Contray to popular fairy tales, chance meetings are few and Happily Ever After takes alot of work.
But, it's sooooo worth it.

There are [relationships] that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous.
~Carrie, Sex in the City.