I've been doing some people watching lately.

Today when I was in the bookstore, there was a middle-aged woman sitting on the floor knitting in front of the shelf with all the books about knitting. She seemed kind of hidden, in between a cart of some sort and the column she was leaning against. I wondered if she was learning how to knit by reading the books without ever having purchased one of them. I wondered what was written in pencil on the pages of the notebook that was propped open in front of her as she knitted. I wondered if the store employees knew she was there. If any customers walked into the aisle she was sitting in, she would ask if she was in their way. I eavesdropped from the other side of the bookshelf as she recommended a knitting book to another middle-aged woman and then urged her to flip to the last page to read the very last line. I wondered what that last line was. I watched as the second woman's husband came to rescue her from the middle-aged woman who was knitting on the floor.

Eavesdropping, Part I: Know-It-All

Droppin' eaves left and right.

I overheard part of a conversation between two people in a restaurant today. It may not be ethical, but it can be fascinating.

"I know I sound like a know-it-all... but I'm really not, because if I open up the Encyclopedia, I don't know any of that stuff. I really only know about stuff that I'm interested in. I'm not interested in the mating habits of the pink flamingo."