the one who met the family

So it’s kinda obvious from my previous posts that I’m single right? It’s not like I want to… just that I’ve had more than my fair share of meeting weird guys and going on cringe-worthy dates. I told some friends about these ‘memorable’ dates. Some shook their heads in disbelief, others laughed at my ability to attract the strangest characters. One even BLOGGED about my dating mishaps, while making no effort to disguise my real identity.

So I thought, why not document these dating chronicles myself? Besides, I think there’s quite a number which I didn’t mention to my circle yet, so this would be a good outlet. A few pals have even told me to write a book about them. It’ll be hilarious, one said. Well, I’m not quite ready to go public with this yet so I’ll just write about them here, in our private little space :)

Here goes the first dating chronicle of barren heart…

I was supposed to meet a.d. for a movie after work. Unfortunately, my grandma was admitted to the hospital that afternoon. Tickets were already bought so I just decided to go meet him at the intended place and tell him in person that I had to cancel and offered to pay for both tickets. So we met, told him the story and he was cool about it.

But he insisted that he sends me to the hospital, saying he’s already out of his house anyway, has nowhere to go and that he got the car for the night. I felt bad of course, since I cancelled our plans on his off day, so I agreed. Once we got to the hospital carpark, I suddenly felt bad (again) that he sent me all the way to the west (he lives in the east). So I just opened my big mouth and asked “you wanna come up for a while?”

I mean, I asked out of politeness. I didn’t think anyone would say yes. It’s the 2nd time I’m meeting the guy, for goodness’ sake! But he said yes! Without the slightest hesitation!

“Oh shucks, what now?” I thought. I already envisioned the questions and staring I will get later. And I know it’s not just my parents. My aunts and uncles were at the ward too. *groan*

True enough, things couldn’t get more awkward in that little room. We walked in, I salam-ed everyone and introduced him to my parents. My parents gave him a once-over and I can TELL that they gave him a quick assessment.

Now, I should tell you a bit about a.d. I’m not particularly keen on going out with him. I mean, he’s friendly and all, decent looking, albeit about a few centimetres shorter than I am. But there was the perennial problem of not having much to talk to him about on our dates. The difference with this guy was that he does enough talking for the both of us. Lol! Yeap, he can go on and on… sometimes he slides in a few questions for me but then it’s back to talking about his principles, his experiences, his life… etc etc. It gets tiring at times but I figured, he’s not too bad for company on days I needed to get out.

So after the intro, everyone was telling me what happened to my grandma, were joking around with each other… while my dear friend was just standing there, not knowing what to say. I mean, what can he do right? It’s not like we’re on familiar terms, or we’re seriously dating that I have to get him to be chummy with my extended family. Heck, even I had a tough time trying to fill up the empty silent spaces between us! Ok so my dad did ask him some standard qns… where you working, where you live, etc but that’s it. There’s only so much my dad can ask a perfect stranger that his daughter brought out of the blue, right? It was just sooo weird.

Reprieve came after 30 minutes of agonizing, awkward standing around. He said he had to go off coz he has an early morning shift. Trying VERY hard not to look too eager, I sent him off at the lift.

Luckily for me, not too many questions from the parents after that. Although I kinda hoped that they think it’s someone I’m dating, since they’ve been bugging me to get hitched anyway. No such luck. I guess they figured that he’s not my kind. Or maybe they noticed how uncomfortable we were. Heh.