For some reason I run into eccentric people everywhere I go. You see, I don’t live in a very large city, but the collection of people I meet everyday is like a bag of jelly beans: colorful and yet you’d have that risk of eating a nasty one but you’d swallow it anyway because it’s so tiny that other jelly beans in the bag may make up for it later. You’d just hope that the next candy would be something of a normal flavor like strawberry or popcorn, perhaps.

I was at a choir potluck at a nearby church. I just so happened to be there because I was joining this group for the first time and their director invited me so I’d have the chance to meet the rest of the members. The potluck was right after a very short rehearsal where we sang through only one song. It was a potluck to honor their organist who was about to start working for another church. Delicious dishes of all kinds were served buffet-style, as most potlucks are done. After partially filling my plate with a smörgåsbord of food, I found my seat between two older ladies.

The lady who was seated to my left was probably in her 50’s, the one to my right looked about a decade older. Pleasantries and light conversations went on over our meal.

The lady to my left asked, “So what do you do?”

This type of question is expected, but it’s something that I dislike because it really never tells a person anything about another besides how important (or unimportant) you are in society or how fat your paycheck is. Nevertheless, I answered, “I’m a programmer.”

“Oh,” said the other lady, “so you write programs that run things on computers?”

“That’s right,” I said.

“I knew it, even before you told us. You do look like a programmer,” said the lady to my left. I didn’t expect this response so it was quite a surprise, and yet I was thinking to myself, well, I am Asian (or Oriental to those who use that word). People tend to expect Asians to be either in the medical field or I.T. That explained it. So I gave her some points.

The lady to my right said, “You must love chocolate, then. Do you love chocolate? Are you a chocoholic?”

I looked at her with a puzzled face, trying to find a hint that she could be joking. But her eyes said she was serious. There was a long pause and everyone at the table waited for my answer. Her husband, seated to her right, listened intently.

“Yes, I love chocolate,” was my answer.

“I knew it! All computer geeks love chocolate! I know. My son-in-law does. He’s a computer geek. A big one.”

It was a very interesting observation on her part, although I thought it was a bit flawed. But I just smiled and shoved another slice of beef into my mouth. “This is delicious. Who made this?” I said, trying to change the subject.

“You know,” the lady to my right continued, “my son-in-law was in the military…” She then proceeded to tell me that he left to be with his family, and that he’s a very smart man, and he’s quite a nice guy, and this and that, but he is socially inept. Without missing a beat, she asked me, “Are you dating anyone?”

The lady to my left immediately asked, “So have you had enough of all these questions from us?”

“Oh, no, it’s OK. No, I’m not dating anyone. I’m married to my job and I may have some problems with my social skills. You know, computer geeks…” I said, doing a fake ha-ha-I-gotcha kind of laugh.

I wanted to ask the lady to my right if she liked shuffleboard, gardening, knitting, or making jam preserves, but I didn’t dare to. Besides, when she started telling me that the government can’t take her guns away, I thought that was enough to satisfy my curiosity.