Deja Vu, or Familiar Faces in Unfamililar Places

I've had a phenomenon throughout my life of meeting people from my past in strange places:

1) When I was in second grade (in Pennsylvania), my grandmother and I flew to Raleigh, NC, to see an aunt and uncle. While in the airport, I ran into my classmate Hank. He was visiting relatives too.

2) About ten years ago, I ran into a client while changing planes in Chicago O'Hare Airport. I'd been to Peoria, stayed with friends, and had a job interview... When I saw my client (who was one of my favorite clients - one of those who got to be a good friend) - I exclaimed, "Pat!" He exclaimed, "What are you doing here?" I must have paused for just enough of a second before saying, "I was visiting friends!" (Note: I always wondered if this was a lie - at any rate, it wasn't the complete truth. The reason I was there was the job interview - the bonus was that I got to stay with friends.) Pat just smiled - and years later, after both of us were in new jobs, said, "You were at an interview, weren't you?"

3) I was in Chicago on another occasion. This woman approached and called my name... I didn't recognize her until she told me we worked at summer camp together (she was a few years younger than I, but I still felt badly for not recognizing her immediately) Something about seeing familiar faces in unfamiliar places that makes that face seem somewhat unfamiliar...

4) The other day, I was meeting with new clients at my office for the first time. We were waiting for the last member of the group - some guy named Tom. When he walked in, I turned, stood and offered my hand to shake, "Hi! I'm Kelly...." We locked eyes for a minute - and I'm sure freaked the rest of the contents of the conference room became uncomfortable... Tom said "Holy S***!" I fell back into my chair and rolled across the conference room. "I don't believe this! Hi Tom!"

Tom was the older brother of my high school friend, Michelle... If I wasn't at home, I was probably at their house...

Since our last meeting, 20 years ago or so, a lot has happened - a lot -we tried to cram in to to a quick walk to the coffee maker... We jammed in info that his dad had moved, what his sisters were doing, that I got married, and sang in a band - all in a matter of a few seconds... It's not a great way to catch up - but now that he's a client - We'll maybe catch up later...

How weird is that? How people kind of weave in and out of our lives?

A Glorious Waste of Time IV

Someone sent this to me - and called it the Redneck WII... Since I've posted no glorious wastes of time in months, I thought you'd like it.

November Showers

I went to my sister's baby shower last weekend - or may I say I attended the first of TWO of my sister's baby showers (I'm throwing the other one at the end of the month - it's a "this side of the family" thing)... I'm going to tell you guys one story from it - and forever and ever more, you will understand why I would be so much happier to just show up, ring the bell, drop the gift and run like hell...

At the end of the shower, the hostess said, "I have one more game! It's called 'Guess The Girth!"

Really?

My sister, aghast and seven months' pregnant, said, "Really?"

"Uh huh!" nodded the host - enthusiastically.

"Um..." grinned my sister, "I think I'd rather not. Yeah. Let's not."

The hostess looked crestfallen, but quickly recovered and said, "Well, ok... then..."

I swore to my sister that when I throw her shower, I will not play such games... But I will serve chocolate in diapers.

VOTEVOTEVOTE!

I can't wait to go out and exercise my DUTY to go vote - and I hope you're all doing the same...

Yesterday, the pastor of my church - obviously commenting on all the thousands of e-mail arguments flying around the internet - commented that voting is not a moral choice, but an ethical choice... so the idea is that we vote our conscience - and allow everyone else the duty to vote theirs.

I've heard everything - that each candidate might be the antichrist (Puh-leeeze) - to the speculation that Obama isn't really US-born... It's absolutely nuts. Then the one instance where I did get in the fray, all I tried to say is that it's not our job to force OUR outcomes on everyone, it's our job to VOTE... I didn't even state who I'm voting for...

I got an e-mail back where the first line read "I thank you for your email, but I couldn't disagree with you more!" I hadn't even said anything controversial!

Look - I care who I'm voting for - and I'm happy to tell you why should you be interested... but I'm not really going to shove my choice down your throat (truth be told, I think that one candidate will do wonders for OUR economy - and the other will do better in foreign policy - so I've actually sweated this election out more than others) - but I'm not going to try and influence who you vote for. That's the candidate's job.

My job? I'm just going to go and vote. (and I'll probably follow it up with many, many letters to my senator during the next four years.)

Go VOTE! And please feel free to tell me any strange election stories that you've had - like one where someone I know was afraid a mutual friend wasn't going to vote his ticket. He said, "Then maybe you just shouldn't vote!" Shame on him!