I had a client meeting yesterday and decided to grab lunch near the location of the meeting. The restaurant was busy at the time so I opted to sit in the bar area.  I was alone, so being able to watch, or should I say read, the tv should help to fill the 90 minutes I had before the meeting. I could also mess around on my phone before and after my order of fish tacos arrived.  

Instead, It gave me time to people watch.   Although watching people at a restaurant is not as plentiful as say the airport, it still provided entertainment for me.  First, I listened in on the wait staff.  It was a loud place, so you can’t always pick up on what people are saying.  Fortunately, I am a student of body language, so there were still takeaways from just observing the physical gestures of a conversation.  I learned, without hearing all of the words that were being said, that the kitchen was slow and it was pissing off some of the waitresses, the bartender was into one of the blonde girls that worked there, 2 of the girls didn’t get along and one of the waitresses seemed to never check on her tables. That was obvious because she spent more time talking to the bartender than she did working in her section.  She looked to be into him, but unfortunately for him she was a brunette and not the blonde.

At the bar and to the right of me was a group of 3 people.  Two men and one younger woman.  She was probably 15 years younger than the two men she was sitting next to. The woman was blonde, attractive and very well kept.  Hair was styled, clothing was name brand, nails done, huge rock on her hand.  A solid 8 on the scale of 1-10.  My assumption was that she was married to the guy next to her.  Obviously a trophy wife.  She might have said 10 words the entire time she was there and most of them were to the bartender.  The guy I assumed she was married to was stuffing his face and talking business to the man to his right.  

I don’t know how he did it.  For every other sentence that came out of his mouth, he stuffed another bite or two of food right back in.  By the way he spoke and the posture he took, he fancied himself as a big deal.  Spoke with confidence and arrogance while chewing with his mouth open.  I haven’t been in a fist fight in 15 years, but there was something about this guy that justified a left hook to the jaw.  I’m guessing he worked in the selling of something judging by the occasional buzz word that I picked up from the broken sentences I heard.  The trophy wife paid the bill…I thought that was interesting. 

The point?

How often do you stop to observe the world around you?  My intention was to burn time by eating, watching ESPN on the bar tv and flipping through my phone.  Instead, I turned everything off and just tried to pick up the messages around me. Do you ever do this?  Do you ever unplug in order to feel the tempo around you?  We are a world of people who need to always be “doing something”.  Feeding our brains with twitter, Facebook and whatever stupid game app we have recently downloaded for free.  We bring music to the gym and zone out in our own little world-oblivious to sounds around us.  Sure, I was eavesdropping, but the free entertainment around me was better than looking at a picture of YOUR fish tacos on Instagram.  I took the opportunity to tune into my surroundings and get a read on what was happening around me.  You know, what we used to do before we became obsessed with making life harder on ourselves with all this technology.  

I often feel that we are loosing touch with the community around us.  We find comfort in our little technology based world of emailing and texting instead of talking.  Facebook instead of calling.  Playing games with apps instead of with real people, etc.  I am just as guilty of doing this myself.  Probably more than most due to my chosen field of work.  Sure, I didn’t learn the cure for cancer by listening and watching a bar full of people at a Mexican restaurant, but I did find it to be pretty entertaining.  You don’t need to check every 5 minutes to see who liked your latest Facebook post.  I don’t need to check 3 times a day to see who all read my latest blog.  

Avoid the urge.  That lame comment from your not funny co-worker will be on your Facebook page all day…you don’t have to read it right now. 

Life and things are happening all around you.  Look up from your iPhone before the bus hits you.  

#trophywife #fishtacos #facebook #unplug #picsoffood #billyjoel