On Thursday, February 13, 2003, at 9 p., a man and a woman walked into a Japanese restaurant and were seated one table away from where I was sitting. At this point I had been observing another group of people and decided to change my focus to these two people.
The restaurant was relatively empty as there were only about four or five tables filled. There were approximately 15 people in the restaurant, excluding the waitstaff. There was music playing in the background, but at an extremely low volume. It was not loud enough to disrupt the couple's hearing of each other or my hearing of their conversation. .
Out of respect for their privacy, the content of their conversation will remain for the most part excluded. However, from what I could gather, this was a blind date. This is assumed because there were several references to a woman named Cindy and what she had told them about each other. Furthermore, as will be described in more detail later, I'm assuming it was a blind date because the woman seemed rather unpleased and uncomfortable being there. The focus of this paper was the woman.
She spoke very clearly and enunciated every word perfectly. Her voice was crisp yet had a sweet tone to it. The speed at which she spoke was interesting because she was (for the most part) consistently not too fast but not too slow. It was interesting because of the comparison between her and the man she was with. She spoke moderately as if she had the intention of saying what she wanted and nothing else. In comparison, he (who was clearly more interested in her than she was in him) spoke very rapidly (a mile a minute to use a cliché).
She kept her volume relatively low. It was not inaudible, but I got the impression this was to minimize the attention she would draw to herself. This is because she was able to speak at a higher volume when the waiter came to take their order and when she later thanked the waiter as he placed her dish in front of her.