The other day I was invited to this dinner seminar held at __ Ristorante. I was late for the presentation and realized I was the only Asian among a room of 40-50 Caucasians. They were mostly professional-looking people with their nicely dressed spouses, senior to my age. It was a seminar on retirement after all. Did I mention I was the only one in jeans. 

When the presentation and card filling business was over, people set themselves out for the meal, a three-course dinner with choices of chicken, veal, salmon or lamb. Not bad at all. (I chose lamb and really liked it.) 

There were eight people at the table, a couple sitting next to me, another couple and a guy sitting across the table, another couple across and to the side who kept to themselves most of the time. Feeling a bit odd sharing a table with strangers, I looked for a chance to join the conversation that the two ladies sitting closest to me already had started. Luckily the kind lady across the table looked at me and said, "You look too young for this." I thanked her and admitted that I couldn't focus on the topics yet. Lol.

The ladies started to talk about their kids, one has a 23-year old daughter and the other has three kids that all finished college. I told them that my oldest is 18. The kind lady said, "You must have started very young." I smiled. 

Then we tried to figure out how so our names got on the list. I suggested that they probably chose people over the age of 50. Then they all looked at me in disbelief, and I said my husband is over 50. The kind lady asked if it was my name or my husband's on the invitation, obviously still probing for my age. I said, oh I don't know, since my husband is still busy at work, I just came here to join the party. Lol. 

The guy sitting next to the couple said he got this kind of invitation in the mail every other week, I asked, "How did you decide which one to go to, by the name of the restaurant?" Lol. The kind lady and husband agreed and said they really liked the restaurant and came here quite often. So I asked them their favorite food on the menu blah blah blah... Then she asked me what's a good Chinese restaurant nearby. I gave them a couple of ideas where to have dim sum, or Sichuan, or Shanghai food. But I was so bad at recalling names of the restaurant or the mall where the restaurant was located. Fortunately my audience were eager to fill in the blanks for me. 

The lady started to ask me about my background. I told them I came to the states some 20 years ago after graduation from college etc. She a little while later repeated to her husband who paused from chatting with the guy next to him. I think she was still trying to figure out my age. 

Then the lady sitting next to me started talking about how costly paying for kids was these days and endless expenses needed by their kids even after college. They had supported all three of their kids. I complimented them. I then said, we just have to let the kids assume that we are poor. I shared my experience - when my daughter got the scholarship for college, I went out and bought a new car for myself. (Pause and audience laughed.) She questioned that if I used up the savings for her college and I nodded. I added that I had used up her first year tuition we had saved and her father and I would have to work really hard and save more during the next four years to pay for her college expenses. Well it was true, but more importantly she felt very proud that she helped out our home economy! Should my daughter read about this or not? Lol. 

We then got into the topic of listing highly paid professions, that eventually led to plastic surgeon. I got more bubbly (I did not drink by the way) and joked about plastic surgeon and South Koreans. My jokes were just too wrong to share in print. 

I felt that I got my audience totally engaged not only because of my humor but also that they had to be very attentive to filling the blanks when I got stuck translating certain phrases from Chinese to English. I told them that I've been reading on WeChat and chatting with my friends so much everyday that I think in Mandarin a lot of the time.  

In the end, I got up and said with a big smile, nice chatting with you and I had a lot of fun! They seemed to be genuinely appreciative if not a bit astonished. 

BTW I truly appreciated the generosity of __ Wealth Management, the company that sponsored the dinner event, who also gave out a hard cover on retirement, a gracious finishing touch. (Pardon me for not remembering the name or title.)

Oct. 12, 2014