"Bad Romance.."

You know the song "It's a small world after all" (and the worlds most boring ride ever invented to go with it...) - well that song has some merit. I am constantly amazed at the many run-in's I have with people either at the most random times or in the most random places. Sometimes I have to think to myself, "What are the odds of this??"'; usually they're pretty slim if not downright astronomical. I had this experience a few weeks after my dud filled dates

For a brief moment I began chatting with a guy who, on paper, seemed to be exactly the kind of guy I would set myself up with - (since clearly I have impeccable taste in men..). In a nutshell he was tall, (not so) dark, and handsome; played baseball AND graduated from Columbia University; grew up and had just arrived from the East Coast....ya this sounded like it could end quite nicely (and by nicely I mean me in a white dress walking down the isle in a church in, oh I don't know, Rhode Island somewhere..). Things progressed in the usual manner of match.com-ing and within a week or so we had exchanged phone numbers and decided to meet up for some drinks.

Whilst texting on the day of our date, we were trying to figure out where to go. I always feel as though I am the one to choose - for once it would be nice for the guy to say "Were going to ______" (but that's really irrelevant and more of just a common theme running in my dating life). However, I will give this guy a break because even though we were both new to the city he literally had physically moved here less than two weeks prior - so sure, I'll pick the place. For convenience reasons I decided to figure out where he lived and based on that I would choose a middle point for our date. The conversation went little like this...

Texting
Me - "so where should we go?"
Name not worth mentioning : "I don't know, you know the area better so you pick"
Me - "Ok, what area do you live in so I can figure out where would be good for both of us"
Him: "I live in the Marina"
Me: "Oh good, me too...where at?"
Him: " "Franklin and Lombard"

(For those of you who know me, now you can see why this conversation was worth mentioning........for everyone else, well, just read on)

Me: "I LIVE AT FRANKLIN AND LOMBARD..."

Naturally at this part I had dialed his phone number to talk about this amazing coincidence. I mean seriously...what are the odds that the guy lives TWO apartments down from me?? After the discussion about the odds went on for a couple minutes we settled on heading up a couple streets to Polk Street where we would settle on a little bar (which I always forget the name of and have only gone that one time). It wasn't a bad bar or anything just not the social scene I am usually in (older crowd really.) Anyway, even though I was starving he had already eaten and the last thing any girl would want to do on her first date is be the piggy eating all by herself while he just watches...um, no thank you. So I sucked it up and agreed to grabbing a couple beers. While at the bar we went over our college pasts, our current presents and hopes for our upcoming futures. Each of us seemed to be pretty driven and I felt like we had a least a little bit of a connection. Like, (yes I am actually using the word like in this literary piece, deal with it...) if I were to grade our date I would have given it a solid B. It wasn't the knock your socks off kind of date but it was definitely above average (at least in my eyes). He walked me home/walked himself home and we parted ways. After that first date we texted each other the next day bit but since I didn't want to be the one making all the first moves I was going to leave the ball in his court...unfortunately it's still there. For whatever reasons (and his loss may I add) he would have graded this date below average. While in almost all of my previous dates, I was the one dismissing the guy, this really felt like the first time I was being dismissed. And for my FRIENDS fans out there, to quote Phoebe, "I have tasted my own medicine and it is bitter." Although, while I was a bit bummed to be rejected from this super cute guy who seemed to have everything I wanted, this was part of the match.com life. You win some, you lose some, but you always get a story - hense this entire blog concept ....

Neighbor and I never spoke again, but one night when I was walking myself home from the bars I happen to pass a guy. A guy that only when we actually passed each other did it register...it was him. It quickly ran through my head "was that him??" and I turned around only to find him turned around as well. However, each of us turned right back around and probably thought the same thing..."awkward!"

And - while I am touching on the subject of awkwardness and random encounters here is another one of those "what are the odd's moments." Ready, set, go...

To be honest I am not sure when this actually happened but I want to say it was before my date with Neighbor. I was visiting my parents for the weekend and on that Sunday my dad and decided to Costco. Now, I don't have a Costco card so if I ever want to go I go to the one in Danville with the 'rents. So, there we were, making our way up and down the crowded, fully stocked with of everything you could possibly think of isle when I happened to veer off into the wine section. While doing so I saw this extremely tall guy handing out wine samples and talking to customers about each kind. All I saw was the back of him, and to confirm my notions I moved myself in to a position where I could see him but he couldn't see me. Then it was confirmed...IT WAS ONE OF MY OLD DATES... remember the super tall guy I went to the Giants game with?...YA. The reason this is so random is that he lives in the South San Francisco area and this wine business that he works for (that I totally forgot he did so) is in Santa Cruz and here I was in Danville. None of these places are near each other and the fact that I hardly ever go to Costco made the encounter even weirder. I ran up to my Dad and made him aware of the situation. Of course he says "Did you go say hi?" Yea Dad, just as I was ducking out of the wine section at ultra high speed I was thinking how nice it would be to catch up with a guy that I blew off...NO THANKS!

Words of the wise (by wise I mean me) - Never underestimate the world and it's mistakingly large size, for in fact just when you think the odds couldn't get any smaller - those odds show up on your door step.