"It's just bad phrasing, if nothing else."
"Yeah, I agree, there are definitely more better ways to say that. Wait, I was going to say 'eloquent.'"
--A girl and a guy at the Job Fair in Pauley Ballroom.

"He claimed that American cheese slices were the only thing you could safely eat in a darkroom."
--A guy talking on a cell phone on Shatuck.

"No, I'm great with old people, they sit around all day and complain about how things aren't the way they used to be, I sit around all day and talk about how Algebra sucked so much less than Trig. We get along."
--A teenage guy at Yali's cafe.

"Excuse me? Do you have a pen so I can fill this out?"
"No. You have to prick your finger and use blood."
"...Um?"
"Because tomorrow's Good Friday, see?"
"Um. Er. Now... could I just use a pen? Sacrilegious as it might possibly be?"
"No. Tomorrow's Good Friday! ...Geez, I'm just joshin' ya. Here's a Papermate ballpoint for ya."
--Me, and the Blockbuster employee, as I was filling out a membership application tonight.

---

Second in a series:

This is what I get for being too lazy to walk the extra three blocks to Reel Video.

"You act like this is all my fault."
"That's because it's your fault."
"Look, it's not like you didn't want to go to Nick's party too."
"I think we have different definitions of 'go to.'"
--A girl and a guy at Jupiter.

"Just don't go telling them about the personal stuff. You know they want to know."
"I know. But the very fact that I'm across the bay, standing here with you in a rather compromising position means that you could just as easily go to them with the personal on me. It goes both ways."
--A girl and a guy standing in line for checkout at Berkeley Bowl (a grocery store.)

"We're not 'just like' your teacher. Think of us as more like your friends."
"Yeah, you know we're students. We have homework too, in college."
"Yeah, right. It's not as hard as mine."
--Two college-age girls, and a 8 or 9 year old boy, on the bus.

"I've applied to, like, a hundred jobs. I've written twenty cover letters, and I'm just recycling them at this point."
"Well, that's a career for you, in and of itself."
"Cover letter writing?"
"No. Recycling."
--A girl and a guy at Triple Rock.

"I wish this store was in San Francisco. You get such better tips in rich areas. Rich people are the real tippers."
--The guy behind the counter at Tully's (in Berkeley) to the girl working the espresso machine after I'd tipped him the change from my purchase.

---

This is what I get for being in too much of a hurry to catch the bus to walk the three blocks to Yali's Cafe.

"Pumpkin? What color is a lipstick called 'pumpkin' supposed to be? That doesn't tell me at all."
"Uh, orange, like Halloween?"
"Oh. *opens lipstick, looks at it* I was thinking like, 'Ohhh my wittle pumpkin.'"
--Two teenage girls in the cosmetics department at Long's