Nina (rhymes with Dinah) and I went out to dinner a few evenings ago. After the how-was-your-day conversation, Nina quoted a friend (who was quoting Woody Allen) saying that if this election turns out badly, she’ll be in the basement in a pool of blood. It’s come to that. There’s nothing to do but that .  .  .or vote. Nothing more to say. So this was the rest of the evening:

“God, this rain. What are all these cars doing backed up like this?”

“It’s Seattle drivers. The first rain and you’d think it was snow instead.”

“Is this where I’m supposed to turn?”

“No, I think it’s up there. No wait, that was it. Sorry. This is exactly we did last time we came here. Now we have to go under the freeway and make a U turn at Target.”

“Really? Was it Target?”

“I think so. But it wasn’t raining and there weren’t all these cars.”

Looking at our menus in the warm, inviting restaurant, we had the coupon conversation.

“Tell me how much you want to spend so I know what I can order,” I said.

“No matter what we order we can save $10,” Nina said

“But only if we each get a meal of $20 so we can get half off the second.”

“That isn’t the kind of coupon we have. We have the second meal free as long as we order two entrees.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, and two drinks.”

“That part’s not a problem. Can I see the Scotch menu please?”

After the enjoyable meal came the check /tip conversation:

“OK, here’s the adjusted one. It looks like we just split it.”

“Can I have the other one for my tax deductions?”

“Not yet, I have to figure the tip without the discount. Are you paying with your card or cash?”

“I’ll give you cash.”

“Oh, good, then I’ll have some cash.”

And scene.

The next day my friend Nancy and I saw Seattle Shakespeare Theater perform Arms and the Man. We always park halfway up Queen Anne Hill so we can get a bit of a walk.

“It feels like Sunday,” I said.

“This is the first Saturday performance we’ve seen this season.”

“Haven’t we always gone on Sunday?”

“No we always go on Saturday. This is the first Saturday performance we’ve seen this season because we changed our seats for Richard III and went on a Sunday.”

“Isn’t this the first season we’ve had Saturday seats?”

“We always go on Saturday.”

(We don’t, you know. We’ve always had Sunday season tickets but we changed to Saturday this year. I just didn’t remember that in time to back up my confusion.)

Then Nancy reminded me of our trek to see Richard III at Seattle Rep theater.

“Where are you going, Nancy?” I had asked. I stopped at the Cornish Theater. “It’s here at Intiman.”

“No it isn’t. It never is. It’s either at the Center House or Seattle Rep.”

“I’ve never been in Seattle Rep with you. That’s Bagley Wright up there.”

“That’s not Bagley Wright, that’s Seattle Rep. And we always go there.”

(For those of you not from Seattle, Cornish Theater used to be called Intiman and to some of us it always will be even though it’s now named after a doyenne of the arts in Seattle, Nellie Cornish and I should celebrate that. I do, actually, I just can’t ever remember that the theater is no longer Intiman. Up the street from Cornish/Intiman Theater, the Seattle Repertory Theater has a main stage, Bagley Wright and a smaller stage, Leo K Theater. I’ve always thought of the whole boiling as Bagley Wright. Period.)

Arms and the Man was fabulous, especially S.F. Kamara as Capt Bluntschli.  Even so at the first interval, Nancy said, “I want to get some tea. I’m starting to fall asleep.”

“Me too.”

I wonder if Susan Sonntag ever talked like this?

I’m listening to my conversations with my friends even as they are becoming  spoken words and I see an image: My two great aunts tottering and doddering in downtown Olympia, their shoulders pressed together as though they are holding each other up.  And yet if we were twenty-somethings having these conversations while texting each other, we’d be .  .  . hmmm. I was going to say “young and lively and cute,” but actually I think we’d be supremely annoying.

Or as Nancy, always the Libra, said, “Aren’t we all just human?”

I think the larger point with which I started this post was that there’s nothing much to say anymore. Just make sure you VOTE.