15th
Extras
Portland is not a small town, but it ain’t big either. As a result, you are likely to run into people you know or recognize more or less everywhere you go.
Personally, I hate running into people I know, even if I generally like them. I tend to instantly forget the names of people I’ve known for years when I find myself unexpectedly face to face with them. Conversation is usually awkward. I honestly think I am exceptionally bad at these kind of encounters.
On the other hand, I love seeing people I recognize. There really is a relatively small group of people playing the roll of extras in my life. I see the same people everywhere! It seems like, in order to see these people so many places and so often, we must be living very similar lives. So, how come we’ve never actually met? I suppose maybe we will some day…
There’s one guy in particular who I swear is living my exact same life, just with slightly different timing. I see him on the bus. I see him at Safeway. He was recently sitting two tables over from me at a restaurant. On Sunday I walked past a music store and saw him inside browsing CDs. I wonder if he sees me and thinks, “There’s that girl I see everywhere having a beer at the same bar as me again.”
It’s funny to think that I’m one of a small cast of extras in someone elses life, too.