Coffee?

I don't drink coffee. When I was young, my mom told me that coffee would only make me "nervous" and it would cause me to shake. I did try drinking coffee but I never developed a taste for it. I don't need coffee in the morning to wake me up, I don't need coffee at night to keep me awake. Besides, I don't think anything is so important that I have to pull an all-nighter for it.

So, I got an email from my mentor earlier today. We have a mentoring program at school between female students and women physicians. I am actually one of the coordinators of the program, so being that I am interested in pediatric radiology, I paired myself up with a pediatric radiologist. The subject line said "meet?". Hmmm, I thought to myself, I just shadowed her a couple of weeks ago why would we need to meet again. It turns out she copied a pediatric gastroenterologist in the e-mail. When I shadowed her she mentioned that she knows of this Filipino doctor and I should definitely get to know him. I said that I haven't really met all the Filipino doctors at school but would certainly be interested in meeting all of them in the future. So we tried paging the doctor but he didn't answer the page so she figured he must be on vacation.

She also emailed me last week encouraging me to do radiology research over the summer. Now, she's saying in the email that she thinks we should collaborate with this Filipino doctor. So, I also got copied on his response to her and he gave his pager number. I sent an email to both of them saying that I am looking forward to working with both of them. Then I got another email from my mentor saying that she thinks maybe I should "meet him for coffee just because he is a nice and young faculty (on your own...)".

Hmm, I thought to myself, could she be playing matchmaker ;). (I translated her email via my twisted hopelessly romantic head to read as: he's single and available.) But then I thought that would be silly. There must be all sorts of rules about faculty dating students. Besides, he is probably married with kids. My imagination surely runs wild sometimes haha.

But I figured, sure I should ask him to meet for coffee sometime. So, I paged him. He called right back. But all the while I was talking to him, I was thinking why should I ask him to meet for coffee when I don't even drink coffee. Then I thought maybe lunch but then it's always crowded at the cafeteria during lunch. Dinner? Well, dinner is a bit much. Why does this feel that I am about to ask him out on a date or something? I'd rather be dead than ask a boy out :). So, in short I didn't have the nerve to ask him to meet for coffee. I was kinda nervous talking to him. I was not really paying attention since these questions were running through my head. He was trying to explain his interest in the short gut syndrome. For the life of me, I couldn't say something intelligent about this syndrome. It must be the syndrome where the gut is short, haha. Then he asked me what's my plan, I guess that's the part where I was supposed to ask if he would like to meet for coffee sometime to continue the discussion. I just said that I don't have a plan. I said something lame like I didn't even know I'm supposed to do research. He said he will talk to my mentor and discuss possibilities. He said that I should definitely keep in touch. He also asked earlier where I live. I probably should have asked him where he (and his family) lives so I would have found out if he's married or not. But I did find out when he graduated from medical school so I have a rough idea of how old he is. But anyways, I just can't believe that at my age I have difficulty asking someone out for friendly coffee. I guess I am just an old-fashioned sixteen year old girl at heart! :)