30 Days of Dinner Time, Day 17

In the window, Nicole and Matt. They are the fifth married couple of the piece, though the other four were scheduled almost back to back in the first week. I went to grad school with Nicole, she is graduating in the next few weeks with her MFA. Matt is starting his residency as a medical doctor in the near future.


For dinner, Matt prepared a home cooked meal. Chicken with seafood marinara, salad, an amber colored beverage stored in a nalgene bottle, and a bottle of bubbly which they happily finished between them.

Tonight was the night of Clocks and Cars.

I have never been more aware of the time passing than I was for this dinner. Talking with them afterward, Nicole and Matt felt the awkwardness of the piece, the tension of not wanting to be theatrical but needing to be to maintain sanity on this small stage. Though she may not have realized the frequency, Nicole spent a great deal of energy responding to the awkwardness by checking the clock, her watch, anything for a gravity on her pending escape. Being aware of the time made it all the more present, even from the outside.

Cars come into play when talking about the night's viewership. Not many people walked by on foot but a great deal of vehicles pulled off to watch, honked, paused at an intesection, and momentarily parked to observe the piece. I find it interesting that the night which (potentially) the most self-aware participants were in the window was also the night that the entire neighborhood opted to observe in secrecy. Perhaps the tension of expecting observation without experiencing it outright could make a participant even more self-conscious... reminiscent of "they're always watching" conspiracy theories.

The second set of police officers for this piece joined the drive-up viewing as well. I mentioned last time how goody-two-shoes I feel when speaking with the police, as I've never been in any serious trouble in my life. This interaction was different though. When I walked to them to introduce myself, they seemed nervous of ME. As though I was going to blame them for staring with their governmental eyes, ruining my pure gesture. In the conversation of assumptions and perseptions, these two police officers must have a very interesting image of their presence in the world... they are not just people, they're symbols. Symbols watching secretly like all the others but also always on stage themselves.