"It was like...Oh my gosh!"

Just a few nights ago, my folks and I went out to eat. The meal was going well, until the very end. As we were waiting for dessert, these two young ladies sat down in the booth next to ours. They were around 20-21 years old, I think.

The lady who was facing away from our booth hardly muttered a word. I almost felt bad for the girl. The gal facing toward our booth couldn't shut her mouth. That wasn't even the annoying part. The part that really aggravated me was what she said. Ever hear of the "Valley Girl?" She was this "Valley Girl" times about twenty-three. Every other word that came out of her mouth was "like."

"And like, oh my gosh, there was like this guy and like I like totally thought like he like liked me and like, he totally came onto me that night and like we like exchanged phone numbers and like we're I think like going to like go out tomorrow night or something like that." Oh, let me count the "likes." Fourteen right there and that would've been said in about a minute. We had to listen to her talk like this for approximately ten minutes. It seemed like an eternity. After only a couple minutes, my dad jokingly said, "Okay, and that makes thirty-one," tallying the number of times she said "like."

The scary part was the fact that she ordered wine, said she was a senior in college, so that'd make her what, 21 probably? So, she's probably already taken a public speaking or speech course. I can only imagine how much cringing took place during her speeches. The words "umm," "uhh," and "like" are the three words said not to be used. They're called space fillers and for some reason or another, some feel that as long as they keep their mouths moving, they'll sound more intelligent. Sometimes, that old saying "less is more" rings true. It's sad that she had already taken public speaking courses and still speaks like that.

Why do some people talk like that? Do they think that the other gender finds it attractive? Do females feel that guys dig the ditsy valley girl routine? Do males feel they'll be better able to communicate with the gals who put on the valley girl routine if they do it themselves? I don't get it, I tell you. I'm not going to try and figure it out, either, because listening to one minute of that routine gives me a headache.