high fidelity

Hi. Drinking lunch on a school day?  That's a nice surprise.  Are you nervous about tomorrow night?

-- Not really, no.

Well, um, are you going to talk to me or should I get my paper out?

-- No, no, I'm going to talk to you.

Right.  What are you going to talk to me about?

-- I'm going to talk to you about whether or not you want to get married to me.

(laughing)

--I'm serious.

Yes, I know.

-- Well, thanks a freakin' bunch!

I'm sorry, but two days ago you were making tapes for that girl from the Reader.

-- Yeah.

Well forgive me if I don't think of you as the world's safest bet.

-- Would you marry me if I was?

What brought all this on?

-- I don't know.  I'm just sick of thinking about it all the time.

About what?

-- This stuff.  Love and settling down and marriage you know - I wanna think about something else.

I changed my mind.  That's the most romantic thing I've ever heard.  I do.  I will.

-- Just shut up, please, I'm trying to explain, okay?  That other girl, or other women, whatever, I was thinking that they're just fantasies, you know, and they always seem really great because they're never any problems, and if there are they're cute problems like we bought each other the same Christmas present or she wants to go see a movie I've already seen, you know?  And then I come home and you and I have real problems and you don't want to see the movie I wanna see, period.  There's no lingerie...

-- I have lingerie!

Yes you do.  You have great lingerie but you also have cotton underwear that's been washed a thousand times and its hanging on the thing and ... and they have it too just I don't have to see it because it's not the fantasy ... do you understand?  I'm tired of the fantasy because it doesn't really exist and there are never really any surprises and it never really...

-- Delivers?

Delivers.  Right.  And I'm tired of it and I'm tired of everything else for that matter but you'll never see me get tired of you ... so ...

-- I think I know what you mean, but were you really expecting me to say yes?

I don't know.  I didn't think about it, really.  I thought asking was the important part.

-- Well, you asked.  Thank you.