First Date 101

I don't know how many of you have seen the movie "Date Night" but if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.  Very, very funny.  There's a scene in it that shows Tina Fey and Steve Carell on a date as a married couple, and when they go out, they watch other couples in the restaurant and do dialogue for them.  Much funnier in the movie and I'm not great at depicting this, but take my word for it.

So anyway, Craig and I went out to eat tonight and we were seated next to a couple who was clearly on their first date.  They were dressed up on a Thursday night, asking each other standard/awkward first date questions like "What do you do?" and "What's your parents' occupations?", etc.

Okay, so I guess I was kiiiiind of eavesdropping.  Wah, wah, wah.  Whatever.  So I quietly tell Craig that they're on their first date, and he starts listening (I'm a great influence, aren't I?!) and in my defense, we didn't listen to their WHOLE conversation - just bits and pieces.

Well, at one point, I hear the guy ask her "Are you close to your dad?"  She then replies "Well, he passed away."  I felt so sorry for the guy and I'm sure if they happened to peer over at me at that time, they'd have known that I was listening because I definitely made the "uh-oh" face.  I mean, there's not too many answers that could've been worse than that for him.  I'm sure that's not the direction he was looking for the conversation to go, and I really felt for him.  I told Craig and he said "Well, how else would he have asked?"  And I started to think about it, and I guess there's really no other way to get that information - they were having the 'family' conversation so it was bound to come up, I think.  She did mention her stepdad earlier in the conversation (I'm really not normally this nosy), so I'm sure from that he assumed that her parents were divorced.  And you definitely don't think "widowed" from there, I wouldn't think.

Shortly after this all happened, the guy excused himself to go to the restroom.  Craig thought the girl would go for her phone to give the "mid-date update", and I said "yeah, and he's probably texting another chick in the bathroom."  (I'm such a jerk.)  Well, she just checked her messages on her phone and put it down and when I look over at her, I ended up staring I guess, because Craig definitely kicked me under the table - I held the gaze a little long, I suppose (with a WTF look on my face no less).  The reason I was looking was because I swear she was over there smiling and talking to her mashed potatoes, hopefully rehearsing her next conversation piece (keyword: hopefully).  Either that, or.. well, I guess she was just talking to her mashed potatoes.  I told Craig and she was obviously finished by that point so I don't think he fully believed me.  Personally, I was kind of weirded out.  I mean, sometimes you try to think about what to talk about to avoid the awkward silences, but you take note of the public places and don't rehearse it.  Or maybe that's just me.