Friday, March 17, 2006

Yes, it was a date

(I'm really into detail for my own sake, so this may be a long read... )

So, I think I can finally say I've had a date with KT. I say that because he paid for dinner. But being the skeptic person I am, I'm still not sure what's going on. ;)

This is probably the least amount of time I've ever spent preparing for a date. I rushed home after yoga and had five minutes to change into something decent (a white faux-wrap knit shirt, pink velvet jacket, and mini-corduroy khakis) and slap on a little eye shadow before hopping back into the car. I prayed my hair would look tousled but cute. Thank goodness it's just stretch yoga with no sweat involved. Getting ready for a date should always be this simple... yeah, right.

I got there maybe 5 minutes late. KT had just sat down in the waiting area and started browsing the menu when I came through the door. The host wanted to seat us at a table near the door. The pause KT took said to me that he wasn't happy with the location. He then looked at me for a reaction (I twitched my nose and raised my eyebrows to made an "eh" face) and asked the guy to find a table further back.

As we approached the table, the inevitable decision was whether to take the seat near the aisle or the one against the window. My mind didn't know whether to take the view out or be able to see the other people in the restaurant. Since KT stopped near the aisle chair, I thought he had staked his preference. But as I walked around him, I wondered if he was waiting for me to stop so he could pull the chair out for me. Too late to second guess, so I sat in the window chair.

With KT still standing, he gestured to the chair next to him and asked which chair I wanted. I said I was fine where I was. Did I miss something??? Someone please fill me in? Is the chair facing in better so that they guy can wave down the waiter or is it because the girl is supposed to have the "view" or did he think maybe I'd be cold sitting near the window?

Except for a few awkward pauses towards the end of the night, we had a good time. The conversation went all over the place as we veered from topic to topic. It was good to learn more about him and share some things.

Highlights:

- He originally thought he wanted to go into bioengineering
- While he's always been Catholic, he didn't take it seriously until grad school
- He still egged me about the rivalry - arghhh [I should have given him a harder time]
- He always wears a tie at work to make himself seem older. [oh the Asian curse of looking much younger than your age] He loosened it as soon as we sat down at the table.

- I revealed being self-conscious about my freckles. He said he didn't even notice them. [How sweet.]
- While talking about how ridiculously puritan Americans are, I mentioned how European tv (specifically Spain) shows late night tv that is basically pornographic. **What was I thinking... I can't believe I used that word during a date**

- We reminisced about childhood things, like playing inside the round clothing racks at the store

He mentioned some other things... I definitely don't think he's shy.

Since I can't remember the chronology of the night, here's my random list of topics we covered:
- He finally looked up the company where I work. [Now wouldn't the average person naturally do this immediately after you meet someone you're interested in not six weeks later? I know I checked him out however I could.]
- Where he did his residency
- How he came to have two specialties
- Why the other school?
- What he thought he wanted to do when he was young
- Parents' personalities
- Extended families
- Where I went to grad school
- Weekend activities
- Dean Cain and Terri Hatcher
- UCSD
- 80s dancing and things that show our age
- Funny commercials
- The amount of travel I do for work


When the check came, we continued to chat. He very smoothly opened the billfold, took a credit card from his wallet, and place it in the billfold. So the question is, at some point, should I have made the gesture of offering to give him some money? This is a question for so many people - to offer or not? [I can't even get agreement among my girlfriends... though I guess the right people to ask would be my guy friends. Anyone?] Well, I didn't do anything. I just continued our conversation while he signed the credit card receipt.

Towards the end of the dinner, it started pouring rain outside. Neither of us had an umbrella. I think I accidentally made him think I wanted to go home. I thought he had looked at his watch and so I asked him what time it was. We had been there not quite two hours. Honestly, I thought it was later than it turned out to be because the restaurant was rather empty, and... I wanted to go home to pee. Perhaps he got the wrong impression I didn't want to be there. But with the rain, we continued to talk, waiting for the rain to die down. He expressed his concern about me going to my car since I had no coat. I lessened the overall concern by saying that it's just rain. Eventually, KT came up with an idea. He offered to give me his jacket shell and I'd give him a ride to his car. So he removed the fleece lining from his jacket [I should have offered to help expedite the process?] which he wore and I draped the shell over my head. Very thoughtful of him.

I dropped him off at his car. I thanked him for dinner and he said something that I can't remember. I am sure I didn't hear anything like "talk to you" or "see you soon." So where does that leave this? Too bad it was raining. I wonder if... how different it would have been if he could have walked me to my car.

All in all, I'm glad we met up. I'd like to continue getting to know him. I wish he had made some clear sign. He's still flakey in the that sense, so I'm not going to take KT seriously. There's no reason to make him a priority if he's not treating me like one. If he wants to hang out and I'm available, that's fine.

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