It's always something

I know I'm not supposed to overthink this. I'm just going to write down some thoughts and wait until Saturday.

So I chatted with KT on the phone tonight. You know, while I find him attractive, I don't think his voice is very appealing. It's not wimpy but it's also not quite manly enough. There's an odd... vibration to it or something. I'm not impressed with his verbal poise. I wonder how differently I would think of certain people if I met them first by phone. I'm always amazed at how easily I can form an opinion about someone from simple things like this.

One of the first things he said is that he might want to cut our evening to just the movie. He's been feeling a little under the weather and has a poor appetite as a result. It would seem he's been seeing too many sickies at work and caught something. Gee, I guess I don't have to worry about him kissing me this weekend. :p

Every time we started talking about what movie to see we somehow went on a tangent. We talked about siblings and how he got along well with his sister growing up. There was one fight at Chinese school that apparently was bad enough the teacher had to separate them.

We talked about dancing and he asked whether or not I've ever taken ballroom. I said that I know Lindy Hop. He seemed to think that was cool. (Thank goodness, he can probably dance a little.) He took some ballroom in college and strangely mentioned how taking dance classes in grad school was perceived as a way to meet women. (What the hell is on his mind? Why does he tell me these things?) KT then shared his inner question about whether it's still true that people use dance lessons for that purpose.

I learned that he did journalism in high school. He also played tennis senior year but calls himself one of the bench warmers. We spent some time talking about the Chang brothers since they actually grew up in my neighborhood. I went to school with them as a kid. I mentioned that I was on yearbook, and he talked about the "rivalry" between the journalism and yearbook students. Is he always looking to find conflict between us?

That morphed into a conversation about college. It was a little odd comparing notes with someone from the farm. I mean we went to rival schools. His descriptions only served to reinforce that they were all spoiled kids. ;) We had much more excitement at EB - riots, hostage crisis, naked people, machete woman. He laughed when I mentioned all that.

There were a number of pauses. I'm not sure why. Like many people, I got a little nervous at these pauses and tried to move the conversation along. I probably should have been more patient to see what he would do.

I noticed it was almost 11pm and took us back to the task at hand. I think we're agreed to watch "Inside Man."

"So how do you want to meet up?" I asked.

"Well, maybe could could grab something to eat beforehand," he reconsidered.

I acknowledge his questionable health and suggested we go for lighter fare since he didn't think he'd eat much. He thought that a good suggestion but couldn't come up with any place to eat. He mumbled something about south Ose and avoiding going there. Damn his poor cell phone reception and mumbling.

"Do you know of any good ramen places?" he asked.

"Just the one in Tain. The other good ones I know are further north which is the wrong direction," I replied.

"Well, maybe I could get off early on Saturday and ...." he said as he thought aloud. The conversation seemed to circle around with no end in sight.

He seemed to feel apologetic when he said, "Ramen is exactly appropriate food for this occasion." (Or something to that effect. I assume he was hinting that it wasn't a nice enough choice for a date.)

I kind of gave him permission to get off the hook this time. Maybe I should have joked that he can make it up to me next time. I reassured him by saying, "I think ramen or maybe some Vietnamese soup would be a good idea since you're feeling sick."

Again he wavered and prepared to sign off by saying we'd keep in touch and he'd be checking e-mail regularly at work. UGH. I offered an alternative idea saying that maybe he could call me a hour or so before he was ready to leave to let me know how he's feeling. He agreed. And then I had to stop him from ending the conversation one last time to ask for a general idea of what time to be ready. He said 7pm.

I wished him to feel better and said goodnight. His goodbye felt awkward to me. I can't really explain why. He seemed unsure what to say or something. Was I moving too quick for him?

So as usual, it was not the perfect conversation. I always feel like I get thrown a curve ball with KT. I'm beginning to doubt there's any magic here. [Sigh] Perhaps that's better as it brings me back to earth and hopefully judge him with a more rational and balanced viewpoint.