Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Chance Encounters
You know, whenever I have those "it's a small world" moments I feel a little bit of a buzz. It's happened a few times in the last couple of months. When I interviewed for this job I ran into S, someone I'd known at Hamilton. Hamilton is a small school- my graduating class was 489. The chances of finding a Hamiltonian in DC is quite large (not as large as NY or Boston, but close), but the chances diminish when you start talking about public school teachers (private school teachers are another story altogether). Not only was S someone I knew a little bit (from some community service projects), she was someone I had thought was cute when I was in school and doing the coming out thing. Cute girls really helped the coming out thing. Don't you think? So turns out that S is A's student teacher. Makes for a nice little club house down at the end of the hall. It's a small world. Two Hamilton queers end up at some public school in DC? Random. But a little buzzy and fun.
My second "It's a small world" encounter happened this am. I take two buses to work. As usual on Wednesdays I got cozy on the bus with the Washington Post Food section. I read about New Chinese-Australian cooking, less scary pressure cookers and biodynamic wine (including one from one of my favorite wineries- Benziger http://www.benziger.com/ ) When the bus slowed down to turn. It was sunny. I figured we were turning onto Western Ave, a few blocks from Friendship Heights. I looked up. We were in Mt. Pleasant, my old neighborhood. I played it cool, like I always do... I mean, no. Actually, I panicked. I hate to be late and I was um, mildly concerned that in the excitement over pressure cookers that I'd gotten on the wrong bus. The man in front of me told me that, no, actually, there was just a huge accident on Military Road so we were being rerouted. Oy. What a reroute. Doubled my commute. I was annoyed. I called my principal. Oh, and here comes the "it's a small world moment" A woman walks up to me at my bus stop and calls my name. She is visiting her daughter for the week. Her daughter and I were good friends back in the days of my ballet-mania (we called the school, lovingly/hatingly Bolshoi on the Hudson). Weird. Old friend (JB) is living in DC now and really wants to be an ESOL teacher. What are the chances.
Double or nothing? I come into school and am all buzzy about the coincidence that I mention it to my coworker C. It turns out that JB and C went to Tufts together and lived in the same dorm. C did not know that JB was in town. Small F-ing world, eh?
I love it.
My second "It's a small world" encounter happened this am. I take two buses to work. As usual on Wednesdays I got cozy on the bus with the Washington Post Food section. I read about New Chinese-Australian cooking, less scary pressure cookers and biodynamic wine (including one from one of my favorite wineries- Benziger http://www.benziger.com/ ) When the bus slowed down to turn. It was sunny. I figured we were turning onto Western Ave, a few blocks from Friendship Heights. I looked up. We were in Mt. Pleasant, my old neighborhood. I played it cool, like I always do... I mean, no. Actually, I panicked. I hate to be late and I was um, mildly concerned that in the excitement over pressure cookers that I'd gotten on the wrong bus. The man in front of me told me that, no, actually, there was just a huge accident on Military Road so we were being rerouted. Oy. What a reroute. Doubled my commute. I was annoyed. I called my principal. Oh, and here comes the "it's a small world moment" A woman walks up to me at my bus stop and calls my name. She is visiting her daughter for the week. Her daughter and I were good friends back in the days of my ballet-mania (we called the school, lovingly/hatingly Bolshoi on the Hudson). Weird. Old friend (JB) is living in DC now and really wants to be an ESOL teacher. What are the chances.
Double or nothing? I come into school and am all buzzy about the coincidence that I mention it to my coworker C. It turns out that JB and C went to Tufts together and lived in the same dorm. C did not know that JB was in town. Small F-ing world, eh?
I love it.
