my move used to be taking them out to this very affordable, half-hidden mexican joint where a bunch of the seasonal agricultural workers go, because i could show off my functional spanish-speaking skills since nobody there spoke english. the food is awesome. they've gotten more popular though and relocated to a more formal restaurant space (instead of this weird strip mall cubby), so servers now have strong english and the menu has english on it. the food is still awesome,

i don't really do restaurants anymore, but it does seem like a meal is the expectation for a lot of people here, if not a bar or a cafe. i don't drink-drink anymore and i'm not a coffee person, so i get to be immediately weird by having weak tea or water or tonic water and then having to explain my health choices or how the i think US annihilated its "third places" to induce more commercial activity and dismantle community resistance of capital formations.

i guess it's better to let them know immediately that i am incapable of what people generally refer to as normal conversation.