Feb. 20, 2011
There were four of us classmates who got together yesterday. The fifth one who had planned to come from Boston notified us the day before that she couldn’t come; her son’s car was totaled in a car accident. One out and gone with it twenty percent of the fun. Or more, I felt.
The meeting was held at a tearoom that was remodeled from a two story single family house. The house itself isn’t generously spaced. The dishes were delicious and tasteful; yet, throughout the whole event, I felt very uncomfortable, physically, sitting there. Ergonomics hadn’t been taken into consideration in choosing the tables and chairs — the heights weren’t right, they mismatched. I was sure that took lots of fun from our conversations. But then to be honest, I was the only one among us who was complaining about the disproportionate table set. Thinking the reason had to be due to the fact that I am much taller than they are, I couldn’t help eyeballing other patrons’ heights, hoping to get a hint of discomfort from their sitting postures. I then detected a woman my height seated in a rather unusual way; it’s hard to describe it but I was sure the disproportionate table set had been bothering her too. While looking around, we noticed that with a few exceptions the patrons were all ladies, even the birthday party held in the reserved room composed of young girls only. Are women more than men inclined to go to a tearoom? Highly likely.
It was very pleasant to see my classmates; I hadn’t seen them since we got out of college long ago. Nonetheless, I felt we could have loosened up a bit more and used some laughs. It wasn’t as jolly as last time when my other group of classmates met up. The venue, a small enclosed public space as opposed to a home in the the other reunion, could be the culprit; it might have refrained us from talking or laughing louder. Taking it upon myself, I tried injecting a few jokes during the conversations to buoy the spirit. It fell flat. Had that twenty percent come then the story would have been a lot different. As is in some other occasions, I lamented the profound lack of sense of humor in many of my acquaintances. I wonder is it attributed to disposition or to our mother culture? I guess it’s more of the latter.
Having said that, It was a cheerful five-hour gathering and I am extremely happy to renew our friendship. Now equipped with this friendship the road ahead looks more welcoming to me.
