It’s A Small World, After All

Our weekend in New Hope was quite perfect. The weather was great, the food was plentiful, and the friends were interesting and fun. I have to tell you, though, sometimes this world is frighteningly small. At dinner, we were discussing the coincidences between us all. The geekboy and I are the Kevin Bacon of this group of people, I swear to god.

Where to start. Well, the first coincidence occurred on the drive to PA. I mentioned to the geekboy that I wished our friend Dave was still alive and living in New Hope (when the geekboy and I first started dating, we realized we had this friend in common). We talked about Dave for a moment, and then the radio started playing a Robyn Hitchcock song…Robyn Hitchcock was the last concert Dave and I ever saw together. So we figured it was going to be a nice weekend, especially with Dave’s apparent approval. That evening we met friends for dinner, and it turned out that one friend knew another friend’s brother. The next day we met others for lunch, and it turned out that one friend went to college with another friend’s buddies. Our other friend’s father taught the geekboy in high school. It’s always been like this with the geekboy and I; we put our friends together and it turns out they all knew each other somehow. I find it equally comforting and disturbing.

My favorite coincidence happened Saturday night. A group of us had just finished dinner here, and a band had started playing. We exited as soon as possible, because if there’s one thing I can’t cope with, it’s bad music. And this band was bad. Some of the group peeled off and went to their respective homes (Frank had to work on a Sunday! So wrong! and Kerry was sick! So sad!). The rest of us walked over to the old standby – John & Peter’s. We slipped into a back booth, still reeling from the awful band at the other place. Another band then took the stage at J&P’s, started off with a ska number, and just blew us away. Lisa mentioned that the drummer looked familiar, and he did to me too, but I wrote it off, thinking he just looked like someone on television. I’ll just skip the details here and tell you that – OF COURSE – we did know him. After a quick conversation, we realized that he was the original drummer in a friend’s band in college. We all had a laugh, shared some memories (“Were you at the show where Eric threw his guitar through the window?” “Of course I was.” :: high five :: ), and when the band took the stage again, they treated Lisa and I to one of the old songs. We hadn’t heard that song since probably 1989 or 1990. For five minutes, I totally forgot about work and mortgages and being grown-up. It was wonderful.

I put up a few photos from the weekend.