Video Games or Wife?

Found on Digg today from http://www.burbia.com/node/2096

Guy: What's normal?
Woman: Probably not all waking hours.
Guy: I don't....
Woman: You're right, once in a while you sit in front of the TV eating Doritos watching wrestling.
Guy: By whose standards is any behavior normal?
Woman: By my standards, that say if you don't cut down the gaming by say, 90%, I'm leaving you and taking the kids.
Guy: (pauses) Those are your standards.
Woman: Yea, and you've got a week to make them yours.

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Ed Note: This one was submitted by a Burbia friend outside Boston. After laughing, we tried to confirm with him it actually happened. The friend said he was at the diner with his girlfriend, in a booth in front of the happy couple. He said the couple was loud, especially the woman who, he observed, was chain-drinking coffee and "kept waving her hands like a lunatic." One time, he said, "I had to slide over because she kept knocking the back of my head." Our friend said the stuff leading up to this particular moment was equally nutty -- something about the guy not listening to her, and the woman not hearing him and their arguing endlessly about the difference between "hearing" and "listening." Your basic nightmare.

By the time our guy could start scribbling what he was hearing (or listening to?) on his placemat, the arguing couple was now onto this particular thread. So, he scribbled it as best he could. We spoke to our friend's girlfriend who also said it happened. In fact, she said that, when they got home, she started giving our friend a hard time for his football obsession--not because he watched so much (which he did) but because, according to her, he never shut up about it, as if she really gave a crap about the details of his 8 different fantasy league teams' standings and player performances.

So, what did this guy choose? His gaming or his wife? Our eavesdropper said that, after ongoing arguing, the guy stood up, then sat down, then quickly stood up again -- and he said something along the lines of, "not fair," or "not right" and, in the same motion of stuffing some french fries in his mouth, stormed off.

In this spirit, we tee up this overheard. Some of us have been in similar siutations -- whether over gaming or TV watching or hanging with buddies or simply staring too long into space. Is this one totally authentic? We think so -- on the other hand, who knows. We like it, though; at worst it's representational and entertaining, so we say....enjoy and consider it a possible cautionary tale. And if you can figure out the difference between "hearing" and "listening" please let us know. (E.g., when we say, "I hear you," doesn't that mean I not only hear the sounds you're making but "get" what you're saying?) Also, why is it OK to "meditate" -- that's considered productive, socially acceptable -- but not OK to stare comfortably and happily (and blankly) into space? We think staring-into-space is highly underrated as a legitimate activity...of course, that's another conversation and conflict. ...overhear more

--Overheard in: Diner, Outside Cambridge MA--