Constuction-ese

Where I was: In the airport on the way from Denver, Colorado to St. Louis, Missouri. As a student who goes to school out of state and doesn’t have a car, I spend a lot of time of airports considering I’m not a jetsetter by anyone’s standards and I don’t “travel for my work.” Still, many of my favorite overheard bits of conversation are heard in airports so at least something is gained from waiting in a line for 45 minutes just to hear your plane never arrived and won’t until tomorrow. Perhaps people are more open in airports because there is the fact that you will never see these people again. Worse case scenario, the person who heard you admit on the phone to your sister that you “only slept with him twice” (really did hear that) will be your seat neighbor on the 14 hour flight to Frankfurt, but most likely by the next day that person who overheard your not so secretly conveyed secret will be off in some bar drinking beer and eating pretzels other and not even remember your name. So this time I was waiting at the gate with my $7 coffee and egg salad sandwich when this round little man caught my attention. I say round because overweight wouldn’t be fair or correct. Little because when I stood up he looked about 5’2 (I’m about 5’9). He wore a bright blue plaid button up that was literally buttoned up all the way and wore the thickest, thick framed glasses. Now I don’t say this to be disrespectful, but the man came off a bit nerdy- perhaps it was the comb over or the nasal voice, but he was the sort of person that a people watcher waits all day for. A readymade character who just begs for some weird story involving Russian supermodels and a shady exchange of briefcases to be written about him, so I couldn’t help but eavesdrop just a little.

What I heard:
Man: (looking very serious) “Really Joe, I can do it. I can go talk to them tomorrow.”
Other person: (because they were on the phone and I’m assuming calling from a secret location somewhere in Asia, I cannot tell you what they said)
Man: “Joe, trust me. I’ll go over to the site tomorrow.”
Other person: (This would be where “Joe” would give comb over man 48 hours to get him the money)
Man: “Really, I can talk to the construction workers. I speak construction-ese.”