it's getting hot in here

for a city of 9.5 million, chicago sure can feel like a small town.

sometimes that's not so bad. as my blogmate and i headed out for a run in her neighborhood yesterday we stopped to greet her neighbor and her neighbor's cute little toddler son... as we were getting back home we saw the same neighbor and son, this time walking down the street with one of our colleagues from work. confirming, btw, that between us there's really only one functional brain, i completely failed to notice the colleague and only thought to myself, "hey, isn't that the neighbor?" and my blogmate completely failed to notice the neighbor and thought to herself, "hey, isn't that the colleague?"

as another aside, if you're running down the street and a guy who's obviously on his way home from the gym drops his towel on the ground, it's probably wise to resist the urge to pick it up, and scratch your good deed itch some other way. gross.

anyway. part of the reason i was pretty hot to get out of new orleans was honestly that there was just no avoiding ex-boyfriends and the like. embarrassing and hurtful moments couldn't be washed away in the sea of anonymity that we all think characterizes the world of nightlife... you could pretty much count on running into whichever person you most desperately wanted to avoid.

but apparently upsizing your city by a factor of 10 million doesn't help. or else i wouldn't have found myself at a very small party with someone who was obviously the brother of a recent set-up date i went on AND, in the same weekend, taken exactly 30 seconds to land right next to someone i just stopped seeing (under awkward circumstances) at a concert at the metro.

not that i'm a big fish, but dang this pond is small.