It's A Small World After All

I bring this up because I just saw a picture of a high school classmate in Let The Tide Pull Your Dreams Ashore's blog. One thing I really love to experience is a "small world moment." There's a reason one of Baltimore's nicknames is "Smalltimore" people. It's practically guaranteed that if you meet a person from Baltimore, you'll know way too many people in common. I am quite guilty of playing the "where'd you go to high school/do you know...?" game. But some of my stories have gone beyond this. Here are some of my favorites:

1)Swampwater

When I was a senior in high school, I did two overnight visits; one was to Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. I stayed with a girl who went to my high school and was a senior at WAC. We met at the Gettysburg/WAC lax game at the 'burg and I drove down with her and her friends. That night, she took me to a huge Fraternity party, Swampwater. We were there, and I was hanging out, when she pulled me along, telling me that we needed to go rescue a guy from her friends flirting. We made it over to the bonfire where they were talking, the guy turned around and...it was my cousin. One of his best friends from high school had gone to WAC and had graduated. He had been a member of the fraternity throwing the party, and they had come back to visit for the event. The girl asked him not to tell my mother that she had taken me out drinking, and he just laughed (because my mom still drank back then and would spend hours during the summer on the porch at night with his mom drinking wine). It was hilarious, and it certainly made an impression.

2) College and Connecticut

My brother's ex-girlfriend was from Connecticut and worked on Cape Cod during the summer. One day during the summer after freshman year at college I got an instant message from a girl who lived in the dorm next door, asking if I knew (insert ex's name here). I responded that I did, only to find that she and his ex worked together, and it had come up that she went to our school. Ex mentioned that her boyfriend's sister went there, the names were exchanged, and voila! Connection made.

3) Fraternity Legends

I figure every fraternity has their folklore and tall tales. Down at school, one of our fraternity's has a story of some of their member's shooting off a cannon (yes, a cannon) at another fraternity house across the way. This story is actually a true story. I know this because the man who was principally involved was a very good friend of my dad's from his high school days. He not only set off the cannon, but built "the rock" at school as well as tried to steal a bell. Not only that, but my big sister's best friend from high school's father was a fraternity brother of said man. Needless to say, alumni weekend with these men is pretty damn fun.

4) Workout

I think I mentioned this, but it is my most recent story and I find it kind of funny. I recently joined a gym, and with joined received 2 free orientation sessions with a personal trainer. I walked in and met with my trainer. When he asked for my email address, I rattled off my college address, only to have him announce that he went to the same college, graduated 5 years before me, was in a fraternity, and knew a number of guys that I am friends with.

I'm pretty sure I've got piles of these stories, not to mention plenty that are just waiting to happen. I often joke that eventually I am never going to meet someone that doesn't know someone else I know, and my circle of people will be closed and complete. But I can hope that with this blog and the fun, wonderful people I have met so far this isn't true, though apparently there is a little bit of it happening already.