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The Dinner Guest, Part 2
The Scientist had just rather urgently ordered a bottle of wine and was willing his wife to reign in her disdain, shooting her death-looks, and silently pleading with her to please, please, please NOT offend the Dinner Guest, this esteemed colleague who was considering moving to town to work for the corporation and who just might be the kind of geeky, low key, well educated friend he'd not been able to find since college.
As the waiter scurried over with the bottle and the wine key, the Dinner Guest leaned in close to the Scientist's Wife, tapped the back of her hand with the back of his hand and yelled over the din, "I couldn't agree more!"
She threw back her head and laughed, patting the Dinner Guest on the shoulder and then shot her husband back a victorious, raised eyebrow death-look of her own, saying, "I just knew we'd see eye to eye on this one, given your line of work."
"My wife reads all those ridiculous books and TiVo's the Talk Show (which is so unbelievably insipid I can't stand it, so I ask her to watch it when I'm not around) and you know, nothing in her life ever really changes and she never seems any happier, no matter HOW 'transformational' or whatever," he says, making air quotes, "the experience."
"Ah, well, one could argue that happiness is more elusive than enlightenment . . . and some people think that happiness is a chemical state, so maybe we should be talking about pharmaceuticals rather than self-help books," said the Scientist's Wife.
By now the wine had passed muster and been dispensed around the table and the Scientist's Wife took a long sip, her eyes trained on the Dinner Guest as he divulged his personal theory of happiness, and the Scientist realized his wife was stealing his new best friend.
As the waiter scurried over with the bottle and the wine key, the Dinner Guest leaned in close to the Scientist's Wife, tapped the back of her hand with the back of his hand and yelled over the din, "I couldn't agree more!"
She threw back her head and laughed, patting the Dinner Guest on the shoulder and then shot her husband back a victorious, raised eyebrow death-look of her own, saying, "I just knew we'd see eye to eye on this one, given your line of work."
"My wife reads all those ridiculous books and TiVo's the Talk Show (which is so unbelievably insipid I can't stand it, so I ask her to watch it when I'm not around) and you know, nothing in her life ever really changes and she never seems any happier, no matter HOW 'transformational' or whatever," he says, making air quotes, "the experience."
"Ah, well, one could argue that happiness is more elusive than enlightenment . . . and some people think that happiness is a chemical state, so maybe we should be talking about pharmaceuticals rather than self-help books," said the Scientist's Wife.
By now the wine had passed muster and been dispensed around the table and the Scientist's Wife took a long sip, her eyes trained on the Dinner Guest as he divulged his personal theory of happiness, and the Scientist realized his wife was stealing his new best friend.
Tags: happiness, self-help books, the dinner guest, the dinner guest, part 2, wine
Comment
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Comment by Erin Cole on June 10, 2009 at 10:38pm - Fantastic finish! Women it seems are the true scientists of chemistry-
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Comment by Michael Solender on June 10, 2009 at 8:08pm - ....hmmm..maybe wasn't best bud after all.. nice piece mariah..
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