Two funny…

I was at a party last night, one connected to a South Asian forum in Chicago. About 20 people there? So I'm sitting on the couch next to a couple, and we start doing the 'so what part of Chicago are you from' thing, because Chicago's a big city, y'know? And they say West Loop, and I say hey, me too. And they ask what corner, and I tell them, and then the wife gets this very startled look on her face and asks what building. And it turns out that yes, we actually do live in the same six-story building, and that in the two years I've lived here, I've never seen these people before. They live on the sixth floor and always take the elevator up from the garage; I live on the second floor and park on the street, so I just walk in and take the stairs. Totally weird. But nice folks, and they're both South Asian and both writing creative things (one a gift book, the other a screenplay), so hey, with any luck, I might actually make some friends in the building. Cool, but oh, so strange. There are a *lot* of places to live in Chicago, and neither one of them is connected with the University of Illinois, which would have made the coincidence more likely.

A few nights ago Bryan called to talk to Kevin about the UIC basketball game; I picked up the phone and we chatted for a bit. And he said that he was in San Francisco visiting his parents, and as he was walking down the street, he saw someone in a Strange Horizons t-shirt! Bryan wrote some math articles for SH a while back. Totally startled, he called out, and it turned out to be Jeremy Smith (who also wrote some articles for SH), and they apparently were both delighted and amused. Heightened by the fact that Bryan's mother came along and joined them, and *she* recognized the t-shirt, and was utterly delighted to see it and meet Jeremy. I don't know why this anecdote makes me feel like my plans for world domination are finally getting underway, but it does. :-)