overheard

This was my lunchtime today.  Eating teriyaki chicken, reading an article, minding my own business.

And then I hear:

"I think the problem is that you're smart and not easy..."

"Yeah it's a problem they find our I'm a doctor..."

"What kind of neurosurgery are you doing? ..."

(Conversation continues in this vein - the neurosurgery vein - for a while, with the three women in the conversation talking about the politics and differences between doing medicine here and in Africa, where one of them has spent some time working.)

(One girl answers her phone and goes outside. Comes back all smiles.)

"He's really adorable but it's not going to work because I won't do long distance anymore. I know it doesn't work... so we're just friends... he's really smart and funny and he taught me how to surf and..."

(At this point, the woman who had been talking about her three year marriage which had been a trial of divergent goals, bad communication and adultery, put her chin in her hand and looked dreamily across the table.)

"This gives me hope - there are good guys out there."

(Conversation returns to a discussion of professional matters, the tension between the expectations and aspirations of professional women, and other such matters of the heart.)

I finish my teriyaki. Tuck the article (with verbatim notes from the conversation in the next table) into my bag. Pay my bill. Walk home.