Monday, March 2, 2009

And the world continues to shrink

Saturday afternoon, I am standing at the corner of a busy intersection with the Duke and two friends, debating where to go for lunch. My eyes flit over to the flow of people crossing the pavement, and I make eye contact with a tall man. He is evidently walking towards me, with sure, direct steps, and I am perplexed. Was my eye contact somehow unintentionally inviting?

He strides up, and reaches out his hand. "Hi, I'm *insert name here*." I reached out to take his hand, bemused, when suddenly the light bulb beams on.

I've had my first random blogger encounter, for this is S'Mat, who I have emailed and Facebooked on occasion, but never encountered through anything but the glow of a computer screen. And, again supporting my conjecture that the world is a bit of a tangled interwoven spiderweb, with random lines connecting you in ways you never predicted, he has ended up not only in my city over the weekend, but dining across the street from where I stood and chattered. And he was able to generalize that profile picture snapshot to the in living colour version of me in my winter jacket on a weekend afternoon.

Feeling as though I have been standing, agape, for several minutes, I let him know that I have figured out the connection, then shout out "I haven't seen you in so long!" for the benefit of my perplexed friends. He nods wittingly at my charade. I turn to introduce him to my boyfriend, and S'mat knowingly states "This must be the Duke." The Duke is understandably bewildered to hear his former blogging moniker tossed about, but I murmur to him softly that he is another blogger. S'mat puts his finger up to his lips in recognition of our shared secret.

We talk for another few quick moments, before we both veer off to our respective groups. With the increasing overlap between my "real" life and my blogging life, I am getting eerily apt at lying on the spot, and I tell my other friends that S'Mat was an old friend from my undergraduate days. They smile and nod, then turn to the menu, as I contemplate what a very small world it is after all.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. I've never met anyone from the blogging world but that would be an interesting situation to be in. Fun though!

S'Mat said...

undergrad! hahaha... it was bizarre to meet you both in such a fashion. funny, as had the Duke not been present, i may not have been able to validate a positive match for you, as i recognize him some from associated photos.
too, a friend of mine used to peruse the blogging circuit, and i was having lunch with her at the time, so i got to express the chance encounter with someone who'd 'get it'.
i did worry some about accidentally breaking that 4th wall (or is it a mirror?) for you afterwards, but it sounds like you adeptly defused the situation. must say that your body-language was hilarious as you slowly wheeled our chat around to help create a buffer to muffle any potential identity slips...
that really was a cool thing to have happen.. again again!!

Anonymous said...

I would've felt SO caught off guard. Sounds like you handled it with utter smoothness.

I'll make sure to keep my eyes open when I'm in Canada. ;)

Anonymous said...

How very cool! I would love to meet some fellow bloggers...anyone in SO Cal?? LOL!

Essentially Me said...

That's hilarious! I've heard of blogger meetups but never any chance meetings!

Living Dees Life said...

that's awesome!!!

harper & beatrix said...

this would never happen to me because my learning disorder is recognizing people in real life from pictures.

~beatrix

Crushed said...

That IS a small world...

Canada being a big place and all...

Andhari said...

This happens to me a lot too, very amusing :)

[F]oxymoron said...

Anonymity is conspiring against you! Bah!!!

:)

Brunhilda said...

That would be odd! It's hard to keep blogs private in such circumstances, but it sounds like you did it well. Sounds fun!

Yoda said...

Again, PP proves that she is really at the bleeding edge of the blogger network ;-)

Ant said...

Heh! The "friend from Austin" treatment again... :-) Still cool though - I recall having to do the same sort of mental gear change when I finally met Paula a few weeks ago...

KA said...

that actually sounds kind of fun!

Anonymous said...

It is a small world, isn't it? A few weeks ago I was in Starbucks and working on a blog post when a girl tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was the author of the blog. I said yes and it turns out that she reads my blog and happened to recognize the blog header on my laptop. Crazy!

Anonymous said...

That must have been so exciting and different. The day that happens for me I think I'll pass out.

Tonya said...

I love those small world stories.

the frog princess said...

I always wonder what I'd do if another blogger somehow figured out who I was in the real world and, say, ran into me in a bar.

Fortunately, the friends I am most often found in bars with know about the blog, so it would probably all be okay in the end, if a bit awkward at first.

I am impressed with your improv skills! :)

Chelsea Talks Smack said...

Ive been on the otehr side of that situation before, it is awfully strange. lol, I understand!

Anonymous said...

WHOA. You, my friend, would be a good person for improv! that was a nice save!

Brett said...

WOW

S'Mat said...

i remember something else in this encounter too: the Duke's reaction was the only thing that freaked me out, leaving me walking away thinking: 'nooo, he MUST know she keeps a blog... but he was totally mystified, uh-oh..'

megabrooke said...

i wish that we could accidentally run into one another!! ;)

EF said...

If you look closely, even the portions are getting smaller.

8 said...

That is a little wierd. I have always wondered what that would be like, but it hasn't yet happened.

Anonymous said...

Its a really small world, my new girl friend (i just met her) has turned out to be the ex of the brother of my long term ex. (if you can get that) bizarre as they are all from a totally different city to me :)

Mrs4444 said...

Love this. Love everything you write. Thanks :)

Therapeutic Ramblings said...

I've never met a random blogger in real life (that I didn't previous know, or plan to meet), but I have run across 2 on a listserv. We both know each other, but leave our blogging worlds out of it.