You look familiar…

A few weeks ago, I took a day trip down to NYC with Cassie and her mom. We went to a party and were the last guests to arrive. I had met many of the people who were already at the party, but there were two ladies with whom I was unfamiliar. Believe it or not, I am usually pretty shy around people unless we’ve sat down and talked a lot.

So I was at this party mainly eating, observing, and participating in the occasional conversation. My attention kept being drawn to one of the ladies I didn’t know. Her clothing appeared to be something very familiar – black pants, white top with an open button down shirt around it. It’s one of those feelings where you say to yourself, “why does this woman look familiar?”

Earlier that day, on the way down to NYC, Cassie’s mom stopped for gas at the last station on the Palisades Parkway before the George Washington Bridge. This is a common thing to do, and the line for gas was backed up all the way to the entrance. While we were parked, waiting for a gas pump to open, a car to our right pulled forward and there was a woman hunched over in a bush. She had just been sick in the bush and was getting up to walk back to the car. I’ll never forget the zombie look on the woman’s face as she walked back. or what she was wearing. Black pants, white spaghetti strap tank top. This woman even drew Cassie’s attention.

So while I was sitting there at the party, there was a moment where a light bulb went off, and I had connected the woman at the party with the woman at the gas station based on the similarity of their clothing. I even whispered in Cassie’s ear and, although she had some doubt, she agreed it was possible.

But my bubble got smashed pretty good on the way home.

I told the above theory to Cassie’s mom who reminded me that it was humanly impossible for those people to have gotten there before us.

Let me explain.

Cassie’s mom is an amazing driver. She adapts to fit in perfectly among the taxis in Manhattan. It’s a style of driving that I will never be capable of. We wound up weaving through traffic and construction, and, she was right, there was no way the woman at the party was the same woman puking at the gas station.

And that’s why “you look familiar” situations never end well.