Where Life Takes You

Where life takes you when you're not really driving is an incredible journey. Incredible as in unbelievable, unimaginable, or beyond anyone's belief that it makes your eyes wide open and drop your jaws.

Somehow right now I'm at this place called the Red Room. There are many things that led me here. For starters, I have finally come to an agreement with my tutees so I no longer need to work on Sundays; from now on I will have 1.5 days off every week and this is almost like a dream come true to me, given my current pay and a total of less than 30 work hours every week.

As I am completely free after Saturday 1pm, I agreed with my aunt J that I'd check out this Red Room with her. It's a talent show venue for expats in the City of Rain. On my way here, I felt a bit reluctant again because I thought I'd be hanging out with old snobbish people and I wouldn't meet any cool men who would like to settle down with me.

But then I changed my thought. I said to myself, "perhaps it's better that way because in all the romantic stories, love happens when you least expect it", although I still had that agenda in mind.

As I entered this room, I immediately let go. I followed my feelings which at first were thirst and then hunger. I looked for something to drink and eat. My feelings led to one conversation to another with strangers. Eventually, as I walked past the entrance, I saw a guy who looked really familiar to me. I stared at him for a few seconds and the he looked up and called my name. I paused for a few more seconds because I couldn't remember his name.  Then it finally came to me. I called out his name.

I felt both surprised and angry at the same time. He came with a guy friend to see their friends' performance. I was actually interested in his friend but apparently if he wasn't interested in a second date with me he wouldn't say good words for me in front of his friend.

----Written in the Present Moment

So last night I wasn't able to finish that draft on my phone because typing on my slow iPhone hurt my eyes and I decided to move to the back corner and relax. First one of the guys I talked to came to talk to me and asked for my number. After the restroom, I stood by the wall in the kitchen alone, silently watching the show. Then Alex came to talk to me. He was the friend of my blind date, Andrew. He asked me how I met Andrew and I smiled in embarrassment and said, "well, it's a....." He said, "a long story?" I said, "no. In fact it's a short story. We met online and he asked me out, and then he never called me again. Oh wait, actually he did call me once by accident. He meant to call someone else on his phone and dialed my number by mistake." Alex laughed and said, "that was awkward." I said, "yes, it was." Then I asked him how he met Andrew. He told me he met Andrew in a toastmasters club.

The conversation took off there. He first told me that he was a fitness trainer and I totally bought it. He's in fact a finance guy in investors' relations for a company. I said, "oh so you're a finance guy." He said, "well not exactly. You know it's investors' relations." I said, "yeah I know. Investors relations is like half finance and half PR." He said, "you're right. You're so smart!" I told him that I was actually in project finance when I was in the City of Gold and that's why I know some stuff in finance.

At one point, I asked him, "did you know that people who are really good performers are in fact introverted?" He said, "yes! It's true. There's a book on this called The Introverts by Susan Cain." I had never heard that book before and he told me there's a Ted Talk by her which I'm watching right now. I said, "I'm the same. I'm a completely different person when I'm on stage." He said, "when I was little I was introverted too." I told him the reason why I mentioned that was that I found the guy who was performing on stage introverted because he was walking alone in the back of the room talking to no one and yet he was such a powerful person on stage.

Later we found out we went to the same undergrad, although he was in the business school and I was in social sciences. He wondered how come we never met before and I told him I spent all my time either in the library or at the gym. He said he went to the gym a lot. I said maybe because I was an introvert.

The conversation went really well until Andrew joined us and then my aunt. We parted outside but unfortunately he didn't ask for my number. I just felt so happy talking to him because he seemed to be a really kind person but witty and humorous like myself. However, I couldn't shake the feeling that he didn't want to ever see me again. For me, if he didn't ask for my number, there would be no way that he'd see me again, and I also felt the whole night and our conversation were wasted.

But guess what, later this afternoon, he added me on LinkedIn. I had no idea how he found it Even though he knew my real name, he should be able to find my profile because I have a transliterated name on my LinkedIn. I felt glad, instead of creepy, that he found me. It was a better way to ask for my number than going through Andrew.

Isn't serendipity the most mysterious thing in the universe?