those ukraine girls

after an arduous family-oriented afternoon and evening (mitigated by a stopever at nearby friends) i got on the subway late whereupon i sat next to an older (55?) israeli man traveling with another one. i understand hebrew fine and dandy and these two were yammering on about this girl and how she should lose weight and is he married and why not and then one of them, the one who protested he wasn't especially tired in a way that seemed entirely passive aggressive as in...i'm not a wimp like you all tuckered out at 11:15 pm, your chin drooping into you chest cause exhaustion makes you unable to keep yer head up, loserville...he said when got home he was going to call and see if so and so got in. and then it became clear that so and so was returning from ukraine where he apparently bought himself a bride! but it makes sense, he said, cause life's tough in ukraine and it's easier in america and so of course she'd want to come here. and that makes sense to me too, except buying brides seems weird and also not something particularly people talk about openly on the subway. which also reminds me that this morning i went into a cafe to read a book of short stories (lost in the city and i really recommend) and it was crowded and this dude and two women sat in the chairs near me to share our common table. and they were media folks, which was immediately apparent by what they were talking about, but also they were idiotic and it made me never ever want to have a conversation in public again. which sort of fits with how i felt this morning generally insofar as maybe i'll make a self-imposed moratorium on party going (though i just now remembered one next friday night i sort of do want to go to). maybe i should take a lesson from my friend s who just came back from an 8-day silent retreat. maybe i should just always listen and never talk.