New York Village

I think I have gotten to the point where I know too many people in this city. There are over 8 million people living in the five boroughs and a significant number of those are crammed into a smallish island called Manhattan, but still, the frequency with which I have been randomly running into people I know has been overwhelming.

Take just the past few weeks. This first incident was indirect, but I think it counts: I get a message from Janice one evening saying that she saw Daniel - most frequent running buddy - running with "another" woman in Central Park. Later on, I tell him that he had been caught. We laugh about his "cheating" with another running partner.

A week later, I am out on my bike by the Hudson, after completing 2 whole lengths of the island, I stop in Battery Park, sit on a nice quiet bench right by the river, overlooking Lady Liberty. Listening to music, watching the sun go down, then the many little lights over on the Jersey side and all the boats cruising on the river, just lovely. I contemplate taking the subway home, my legs are tired and the wind is blowing from the north: it's gonna be a long way up to 72nd street. I stand up to make a move one way or another and as I turn around, I see a guy stop on his roller blades next to me: he's the one I had asked earlier to come biking with me but said he didn't have time. Heh, embarrassing! You gotta be careful in this village!

Another week later, I am at Flushing Meadows for the US Open. The grad school had some extra tickets for new student orientation, so I signed up. Between 2 sets, I go out to buy some ice-cream and while standing in line, I see this guy I recognize. Can't think of his name, I only met him once and what I clearly remember is that we talked about the fact that he looked a lot like Viggo Mortensen. I try not to make eye contact - he is actually the friend of the ER intern I went out with a few times, let's just call him Dr. Carter - it might be awkward to speak with him. Of course, that doesn't work: he looks straight at me and comes over.

"We've met before, haven't we?" he looks puzzled,
I say "Yep, I am Dr. Carter's friend, we hung out that one night, you know, bar hopping in the Village."
"Ah, yes!" awkward silence,
so I ask "How are things up at Columbia?" he is an ER doc too,
"Oh the usual, very busy. Do you still talk to Dr. Carter, don't worry, I am not here with him."
"Oh, uh, well, sort of" more awkwardness, so I feel the need to add something:
"He's a little complicated, that Dr. Carter."
Viggo seems to agree and laughs "oh, no, not Dr. Carter, hahaha, oops, I didn't mean to say anything bad about my friend, but yeah, you're right."
We both laugh, and he's off to search for his wife. Lovely exchange in the ice-cream line inside Arthur Ashe stadium.

10 minutes later, I am back at seat happily munching on my $5 cup of Ben and Jerry's ice-cream, when I look up at the large screen and see Daniel smiling and happily waving his hand from one of those fancy VIP boxes. I poke my friend: "I KNOW THAT GUY!" She says "ME TOO!" (turns out they did in fact meet the week before at my birthday party) and I quickly text him to ask how the hell did he get that good seat???? He thinks maybe I saw him on TV, but no, I tell him, I am up in the second to last row, one of those miniature people he can't see from down there. Poor Daniel, he doesn't seem to be able to get away from me!

Later that night, I post on facebook about having seen Andy Roddick lose. The next day, I get a message from a friend from the Chicago days - worked together in the lab back there before she went to med school in Rochester and is now a resident at Yale. She is gonna be in town with her boyfriend for the long weekend and they have tickets to the US Open for Monday night. She ask me if by any chance I am going again on Monday. Well, actually, YES, I did have tickets for Monday night. Funny thing is, I got those tickets for K and I back when we were going out a few months ago. Then things got all tangled up and weird between us and when I asked him a few weeks ago if he still wanted to go with me (I thought it was an offering of truce and a chance to make things right between us so we can go on being friends) he just completely ignored my question and never even said a no. Just no answer, like this never happened. It really pisses me off when people are so rude and even occurred to me to ask him for the price of his ticket, but then decided that I would rather just never have to communicate with him again. But this is another story all together.

So Lauren, from Chicago, whom I haven't seen in about 4 years, was going to be at the Open last night. I took Kelsey as my date and we all met up before the matches in the food court for a delicious banana&nutella crepe (no, not as delicious as Daniel's, but not bad for a sporting event). Turns out Lauren and Kelsey remembered each other - I had no idea they ever even met - from Chicago. At least this time I met someone as planned, not randomly like it normally seems to happen these days.

Let's see what the upcoming days bring... I have one more US Open session to attend, I am making bets already who I am going to see there :)