Seating arrangements
Jun. 15th, 2002 06:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyspriteI've been to enough formal and quasi-formal events to realize that, whether there are intentional seating arrangements or not, people always seem to wind up self-sorting into two groups.
There are the calm, quiet people who sit at their places, keep their elbows off the table, and eat their dinner while calmly and quietly discussing the weather, their families, the last movie they saw, or whatever else people like that discuss. Lord knows I have no idea, since I never wind up sitting there.
Then there's the other group. Usually somewhere near the back of the room, intentionally or not. Less than half the people, providing nearly all of the noise. The ones who wind up singing the Facts of Life theme song at the top of their lungs, just to see if they can remember the words. The ones who, at a clambake, wind up dancing their dinners around the table acting out entire scenes from 'The Little Mermaid.' Who, when dinner is two hours late, don't really notice because we're too busy writing song parodies, having silverware duels, or pushing the tables aside and swing dancing.
Somehow I always wind up sitting at the rowdy table. I don't quite know why. I'm not a rowdy person by myself; i always figure I ought to be in the quiet corner, talking to someone my uncle's age about peeling the wallpaper in my new apartment. And instead I find myself in the temple lobby singing Gilbert and Sullivan with a bunch of cheerful strangers.
We always get weird looks from the more sedate people, and I suppose it might be appropriate to quiet things down a bit... but then again, the purpose of these events is, supposedly, to enjoy oneself. Noone can deny that we're succeeding at that. Maybe instead we should send Rowdy Ambassadors of Goodwill to the other tables. They might wind up enjoying it too....
There are the calm, quiet people who sit at their places, keep their elbows off the table, and eat their dinner while calmly and quietly discussing the weather, their families, the last movie they saw, or whatever else people like that discuss. Lord knows I have no idea, since I never wind up sitting there.
Then there's the other group. Usually somewhere near the back of the room, intentionally or not. Less than half the people, providing nearly all of the noise. The ones who wind up singing the Facts of Life theme song at the top of their lungs, just to see if they can remember the words. The ones who, at a clambake, wind up dancing their dinners around the table acting out entire scenes from 'The Little Mermaid.' Who, when dinner is two hours late, don't really notice because we're too busy writing song parodies, having silverware duels, or pushing the tables aside and swing dancing.
Somehow I always wind up sitting at the rowdy table. I don't quite know why. I'm not a rowdy person by myself; i always figure I ought to be in the quiet corner, talking to someone my uncle's age about peeling the wallpaper in my new apartment. And instead I find myself in the temple lobby singing Gilbert and Sullivan with a bunch of cheerful strangers.
We always get weird looks from the more sedate people, and I suppose it might be appropriate to quiet things down a bit... but then again, the purpose of these events is, supposedly, to enjoy oneself. Noone can deny that we're succeeding at that. Maybe instead we should send Rowdy Ambassadors of Goodwill to the other tables. They might wind up enjoying it too....
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Those aren't 'weird' looks, they are envious looks.
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Date: 2002-06-15 11:56 am (UTC)This sounds like a capital idea!
(In fact, as a permanent resident of the Rowdy Table myself, I may just have to steal it ...)