Personal Dork Assistant

Sunday Brunch

Got a call from my uncle in LA over the weekend.

"Hello Michael, I'm in San Diego to visit some friends. If you're not busy on Sunday let's get together for breakfast or brunch."

"Long time no see. Sorry for not getting in touch more often. I'm not doing anything so I'd love to get together. Where are you in San Diego?"

"I'm near the UCSD campus. My friend has a kid who's also a graduate student at UCSD. You can meet some new people."
Light bulb should've turned on here

"Um, yeah. Is American food okay? Chinese food in San Diego is no match for LA, I'm afraid. There are some nice places in La Jolla.

"Oh, that's fine. I'll come by and pick you up in 15 minutes.

15 minutes later...

"Sorry for the messy apartment. I wasn't really expecting guests.

"That's okay. I was a single student once, too, so I know how it goes. Let me make a call and we can pick up my friend along the way. It'll be a chance for you to meet someone new outside your department."
[Ed: The translation is a little awkward, the point being that Chinese pronouns are genderless, at least in the spoken word]
Klaxons should've been going off by now

"Um, sure. That'll be nice."
Not a clue

"Her name is Michelle, by the way."
Gotcha.

First time I've been fixed up, even though it wasn't really a hard sell. Thank goodness I managed to do a little research ahead of time. Picked out a California bistro-type place in downtown La Jolla. There was a bit of a wait during the lunch rush, but it gave us a chance to walk down to the Cove and we got a patio seat under a perfect San Diego day. The food was good, although a Cobb salad really should have avocado and blue cheese instead of cucumber and jack cheese.

Oh yeah, the girl. She's a PhD candidate in American Lit (late 19th century), after doing her undergrad work in Taiwan and getting a masters at UW Madison, which is pretty darn impressive. Smart, obviously, and cute enough. Seems like a nice person, but it's not as if you can tell anything more than that over lunch. Having the uncle there minimized the amount of awkward silences, although I'm not sure if conversation about the inner workings of the LED industry was preferable to awkward silence.

I'm not sure if we actually have anything in common, which may be a good thing, since anyone who has too much in common with me would probably be an antisocial freak. I figure I can at least get a cup of coffee out of it, if only to find out how she managed to get herself roped into this enterprise. If nothing else, it was a reminder that most people still meet mates through family and friends. The solitary swinging single is one of those postmodern figures that's more mythical than anything else. Remind me to pick up Bowling Alone one of these days. On the other hand, I'm not sure if I want to encourage the relatives too much, especially if I go back to Taiwan during the summer. If mom mobilizes her social network, this could get real ugly real fast.

Posted by mikewang on 09:14 AM