on meals with my family
right now i am enjoyinging a particularly filling dim sum brunch in the middle of markham. my mom’s parents are here, as well as a couple relatives from my dad’s side who we haven’t seen in almost a decade. one thing i have always found fascinating/hilarious about meals out with my relatives is the moment when it is time to pay for said meal. with normal people, the bill settling is a simple affair, perhaps. oh, you paid last time! Let me get it this time. oh, let’s.split it 50/50, etc. whatever. when it comes time to pay the bill with my relatives, most of the time it dissolves into a wrestling match over the bill, with each party *wanting* to pay for the entire table. it’s kind of like watching klingons battle over their honour. sometimes they will resort to guile and stealth, asking for the bill before the rest of the table expects it, or pretending to go to the washroom and sneaking off to the cashier’s desk. today i predict a 4-way tug of war, between my mom and dad, my mom’s parents, my great-aunt visiting from Phoenix, and my dad’s cousin + wife. prediction: seeing as my mom and her mom are easily the most stubborn of the bunch, i am going to bank on one of them. however, my dad’s cousin and my mom’s mom can play the “you’re in our city” card, while my great-aunt will most likely mention how she hasn’t seen us in forever and she is almost never here so she should pay, to which everyone else will say “that’s’ridiculous, the visitors never pay”, at which point my mom and her mom will resume their struggle.
