slow on the uptake.

lately i've been having these weird experiences where i meet someone completely new (usually a cool parent, as i've been meeting a lot of those these days), and end up having a conversation with them wherein New Person innocently drops the name of someone i know into conversation, and i have no idea how they know that i know that person (did that make sense?).

example: i met this woman lisa through M_'s preschool who is totally rad (her son goes there as well; we were magnetically drawn to each other as the resident 'freak moms'). she invites me & jamie over for dinner. at dinner, something comes up about the tattoo museum and lisa off-handedly says to me: “oh yeah, kristen's ex used to work there.” kristen. okay, see, the weird thing is that i know *exactly* who she means because of the context (tattoo museum, ex-boyfriend), but the weirdness creeps in when i stop for three seconds and think: HOW THE HELL DOES SHE KNOW THAT I KNOW KRISTEN?!?! its not like i'd mentioned kristen or anything....

eerie, dude.

but of course all of you know precisely what i'm going to say next, and why these people know things about me and about who i know... because you are quicker than me, and because until recently i had no sense of scope regarding how many people read this stupid thing, or who exactly reads this stupid thing. but it turns out that apparently this stupid thing is getting read by a lot of people and i don't (or rather didn't) know it. and now, well, people know things. and what's funny is how they drop that knowledge casually into conversation, as though OF COURSE i should expect them to be reading my blog and for them to know all of this crap about me.

its a little unnerving, to be perfectly honest. and kind of awesome too, as its like giving people new to my life a primer on traceydom: get to know me in 50 posts or less!

i know, i know -- that's reductive.

actually, now that i think about it, if you read this, this and this you'd pretty much have the cliff notes version. such is my expansive depth and subtlety.

Comments

[xlt]

Add to that the fact you live in Smalltimore, where you can't even get *three* degrees of separation, never mind six.

And, BTW, I know two of the three people you referenced in your story. Give me a week; I'm sure I'll meet Lisa too.

[sweetney]

todd - funny, but lisa lives, like LITERALLY up the street from you; on the street that runs topwise-horizontal to your street (can't think of the name). they have a tree swing in the front yard. i was SHOCKED you guys don't know each other.

[xlt]

Aha! Even though I haven't met her, I know EXACTLY who you mean. Heaw 'bout thet, Hon?

[kristen]

lisa who?