free dinner

So my cousin called me a few days ago saying he would love to take me to dinner. I of course knew this meant "we want to take you to dinner to meet a nice eligible boy" since I never see these relatives otherwise. (My cousin is around my dad's age). Anyhow, it's not like I can say no so they picked me up last night to go all the way to Hayward for sushi. A little far but turned out the other family was in Hayward. All during the car ride, my cousin and his wife told me how great this family was and how my parents get along so well with the other parents etc etc. They knew very little about the guy except they thought he might be outdoorsy. I took that with a grain of salt.

So we get there and I'm casually introduced to all - the guy barely makes eye contact. My immediate thought was "dude, this guy looks way younger than me". I had been told in the long car ride that he was around my age. So dinner was me, my cousin, his wife, the dad, the guy, and the guy's sister. A happy party of 6. The older folks sat at one end whereas we sat at the other end. So I'm a picky eater and we were at Japanese which I really like but I don't really eat seafood so I usually just order for myself. Turns out the guy was also a picky eater and did the same. That was not a good trait I realized but I swear I at least try to hide my pickiness better.

The evening was a bit uneventful because the conversation was all in mandarin which I can kind of understand but I didn't feel like concentrating so I just let it flow over me. A couple of times, they would try to switch to Taiwanese so I could follow but I almost wanted to just say "don't bother, I'm not really listening anyways". Overall impression of the guy: he seemed very nervous and scared of me. He acted really young (he's the youngest of his siblings). For example, when his sister was serving salad, he really didn't want any so he even covered his plate with his hands to stop her and protested. Dude, that's something I did with my parents as a kid.

So the sister drove me home and it was interesting to get the other side's perspective. Apparently her brother had called her that day all freaked out because he had this feeling his dad was trying to set him up. Her response was that she would be at dinner too so it wouldn't be as bad. So I wasn't imagining his nervousness then... At the end of dinner, my cousin's wife tried to get us to exchange contact info but I sort of talked over her stuttering and said I was in a hurry to get home. phew.

My parents will be so disappointed. alas.