Small world part 2

Today was our MNVA Back to School Picnic. My friend Theresa was going to be there with her son, and Calandria was maybe coming, too, with her daughter. So even though we didn't really feel the need to get any of the "welcome back" information, we were eager to go to see friends and meet teachers.

Well, after the official business was taken care of, Theresa and I were talking (Calandria hadn't arrived yet) and she introduced me to a friend of hers, Lynn, who is starting MNVA for the first year with her 8th-grade daughter. When Lynn said her name and her daughter's, I found myself asking, "is your husband Tony?"

Back when I was in college I lived in a rooming house that was actually a cooperative, owned by the students living there, and it was in the middle of frat row ... and let's just say the people who lived there were not the type to have ever gone through rush. I lived there for a year with my friend Alice, and in a room up on the 3rd floor was this adorable Italian-American young man with dark eyes and dark curly hair. I was smitten, I had a total crush on him ... but alas, he was not interested in me at all because of this young woman named Lynn, who he thought might turn into something serious.

Yes, the Lynn I met today. Guess 25+ years counts as serious! So I said, after she had responded with "yes, my husband is Tony, do you know him?" "I lived in the co-op in college." Both Lynn and her daughter got amused looks on their faces, and they both said "OH! You lived in the CO-OP?!" I said "yeah, and I had a crush on him back then!" and laughed. But the laugh was on me, because they then said that he was on his way there - right then! When he showed up 10 minutes later, everyone at the table looked from him to me and back again. He got a quizzical look on his face and I said we were taking bets as to whether or not he would know who I was. He was tactful and vague and then I told him ... and to be honest I really don't think I would have ever recognized him, either.

But the small worldness doesn't end there. He and Lynn left, then Calandria showed up and we went to the zoo. When I got home tonight I (of course) googled Tony to see what he does these days, and he is an author. His specialty is civic dialog - bridging the divide between liberals and conservatives. Calandria -- sound like anything we've talked about before? Citizens for Civility?

Even back then, in an unrequited crush, I apparently had good taste :-)