Blasts From The Past And Other Strange Encounters

I am pretty much used to the random encounters that occur infrequently from time to time, but this past weekend, and this past summer to some extent, was filled with more than its fair share.

For starters, yesterday I got a call from the mother of one of Savanah's friends asking if we'd like to meet them for lunch before attending a birthday for a fellow classmate. Not having planned anything for before the birthday I said sure. So I get Savanah ready to go and we drive over to Fuddruckers. Thinking that I've arrived a bit late (we had to stop for Birthday Cards) I walk around the restaurant looking for them. They aren't there yet, but I do hear somebody call my name. Now, you have to understand that neither I nor any of my local friends frequent Fuddruckers. I've been a handful of times with the last time being over two years ago so I have no idea who would be there that would know me. I turn towards the voice and much to my surprise; Kristy and Mandy are sitting there eating lunch. So what's so weird about that? Well, considering that one lives in Glen Burnie and the other in Deale and I'm sure there are several Fuddruckers between there and Reisterstown, I'd say a lot. I even saw them when I walked in, but my mind dismissed it actually being them due to the impossible odds of them sitting in a Reisterstown Fuddruckers on the same day as my first time being there in two plus years.

So I chat with them for a bit until Savanah's friend arrives and we order and sit down to eat. Sitting in the next booth over from us is a little boy who keeps "flirting" with Savanah and Rebecca. The boy's mother explains that he is all about the little girls and flirting (they are only 5 so it is all rather funny (I've still got a few years before I have to go into "That's MY daughter you are flirting with!!!" mode)). Anyway, I recognize the mother as a girl who attended the same High School as me. I'd like to point out that in the many years we've lived in Maryland, other than the three years I spent living in Timonium, I have lived in the Owings Mills / Reisterstown Area. In the past 17 years I've bumped into maybe 5 people from High School (although thanks to the Internet, I've made contact with a few more than that, but we are talking random encounters here) and strangely enough, most of those people I bumped into in Hanover, MD at the Cancun Cantina rather than back in the Owings Mills / Reisterstown Area.

Anyway, so here I am, I've been at Fuddruckers for 30 minutes and have already bumped into two people who I wouldn't have expected to see there in a million years and an old acquaintance from High School. We finish off lunch and head over to the Birthday Party at Pump It Up. Savanah and Rebecca are off and running the minute we get through the door and I'm over with the other parents chatting away. During the course of the party I notice yet another person that I recognize from back in my High School days. Back in my B'nai Brith days (some 18 years ago) her I and two other friends were a tight group. It took her a few moments to recognize me though after I said hi.

This past summer had several similar occurrences. The party we attended on Sunday was for two of Savanah's classmates. Their father happens to be another guy I knew from B'nai Brith. Another mother of one of her classmates knew me from my life guarding days at the JCC. And another mother we just recently found out is married to a previous exchange student who I knew and who my mother dealt with as an AFS representative back when I was in High School.

It really is a small small world.