My continuing ed. class comes in handy...sort of

Last night I was hostessing at the restaurant. We were right busy, too. Later in the evening a woman and a super cute young guy came in and I took their take out order. The guy was hard of hearing, so I signed while I was talking with the woman. Mind you, the sentences were not high philosophical thought: "What do you want to eat? What is your name? Order number 77, about fifteen minutes." Then I went back to doing my other jobs.

I happened to run in to them as they were walking out with their order. The woman kept walking towards the door, but the guy came back when he saw me. He asked my name, and I told him. Then he asked for my number.

The fact that I knew that he asked for my number is rather miraculous. That's not really something that they have covered in my Continuing Education ASL 1 class (that has only met twice now). So I told him "I don't know sign language. I'm learning."  "So?" he asked. I mean, we could write things, I thought to myself.

Then I realized that the nearest deaf university is over an hour away; the nearest deaf high school is only five minutes. I switched to writing instead of signing. "You go to Local Deaf High?" He nodded.

Yup, that'd definitely be illegal.

Here's where I wonder why I wasn't smart enough to tell him that I have a boyfriend. It'd be less awkward for him in terms of rejection and it'd save a lot of explaining. But no, I wasn't that clever. "I started learning in college," I wrote, hoping he'd get the picture.

Then he offered me a tip. Sigh. I'm not even going to bother explaining why that made me feel uncomfortable. "Give to sushi chef," I signed. I gave his mom a friendly wave and then went to hide in the kitchen. 

I feel really bad because asking some one out like that point blank takes a lot of courage. And selfishly, it would have been really nice to have a friend that could help me learn sign language. But dating some one my baby brother's age is really not my idea of a wise decision.