QOD: Have you ever had one of those spooky, six degrees of separation moments?
Well, I have them all the time, apparently. I first noticed that I had this unique propensity to run into people I know in the darnedest places, or randomly meet folks who are connected to those I know. Think back to that funny game, Six degrees of Kevin Bacon, where every actor can be linked through their film roles to Kevin Bacon. It's weird, I've got this odd "Name that Tune" link to people no matter if I'm in the US or abroad.
In college, I went abroad one summer and ran into some Senior gal pals who had done semesters overseas. The strange part about it, I was taking two classes in London and my roommate and I took a boat to France for the weekend. (note: there is nothing more depressing than being a poor college student starving their way through Paris). But in a random cafe, I ran into 3 of my senior friends from college. I had to travel thousands of miles across the Atlantic and the channel to see them, and on top of that, I met a guy who lived in a neighboring town to my college, Mechanicsburg. Random.
When I started my new job in October - I went to HQ only to find a lost childhood friend was a senior member of the management team. You know it's a spooky connection when you poke your head into someone's office and say, "Did you grow up in West Orange, NJ?" and the say "Yes!" And when another person at the company knows someone you went to grammar school with 7 states away - hmmm.... maybe there is something about these events happening in twos!
My latest random connection(s) happened in San Francisco last week. At a local blues jam, shrouded in secrecy, I talked to one guy who lives not 10 miles from my friend/colleague, who lives in bumfuck nowhere, and I mean out in the wild with the critters and the bears in Southern Colorado. Then, this other guy waltzes in, goes through the rigamarole of signing in, because this jam is in a private boat club, you have to be the "guest" of a member - and he said he was sent an email, there was a blues jam, and how could he join? yada yada yada.
The bartender was cool, told him about the nametags and said he would sponsor the guy. He orders a drink and proceeds to toodle on his harmonica which he carries in his pocket - just in case he finds a blues jam shrouded in secrecy, perhaps? After a bit, this guy, Roger, struck up a conversation with my cousin and I, as we were watching/listening to John, her husband, play some old school blues. We get to talking and this guy is the brother of my old boss! No fooling - how we got there - is too random. Now my cousins think I am this weird people connection magnet - maybe I am?
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