etiquette question

Today I arrived at my class about 10 minutes early. This was a mistake because I sat down and instantly the girl next to me began talking. And she didn't stop until the professor walked in and began class. You might be thinking that this doesn't sound like such a big deal. Let me give you a little taste of our one-way conversation: 

She talked about her favorite English teacher, who sadly only teaches 100 level classes so even though he was a bit eccentric she's sad that she can't take his class again. Then she said she was so glad our book this semester is hardback (yeah, me too - that only adds another pound of two to the monstrous thing) because it's so much better, (gasp for breath) but then "there's just not room to annotate and really what are you supposed to do? Put sticky notes all over? Then that looks messy but really I just like to be able to write lots of notes. In other books there's lots of room to write so I don't know what I'll do with this one." yada, yada, yada...

Then she went on for-e-ver about how each and every one of her books arrived in the mail - what packing was used (FOR EACH ONE) and what shape they were in and she gets sooo frustrated if the corner is bent or anything like that (gasp for breath)...

So, what's the proper etiquette in a situation like that? I believe my eyes glazed over today and I just nodded every so often and wished the teacher would hurry on up and start the class. I think next week I'll meander the halls until about 1 minute before class starts.