In a city this big.....

How funny. When I look at this photo that I took a few years ago, I am almost convinced of the impossibility of randomly running into someone from my past. Living in a city of an estimated 3 million inhabitants, it can be quite easy to become complacent with a relatively "safe" anonymity. If there's someone you don't ever want to see again, it's not as hard as say living in a town of 300 or 3,000 where it's very likely to run into said person at the corner store getting a gallon of milk. Or so you'd think! Life sure does bring with it a warped sense of humor. My early Wednesday morning mishaps on the bus today are one such awkward, albeit oddly amusing example of such irony I cannot resist sharing.....

First, a little travel back in time to add flavor to today's amusement.....

When I first moved to Chicago, I dated this guy (Andrew) who was studying advertising with Miami Ad School and doing his internship at the prominent Leo Burnett advertising agency here in downtown Chicago. At the time, I guess I was as intrigued with what Andrew was doing as he seemed to be with himself. When I was dating him, I frequently tried to be something that I was not to appease him....at worst, I was a people pleaser with obviously little to no confidence in the relationship department. It was a very conflictual off and on relationship. He lived in Chicago for a few months, moved to a few different cities for school (Minneapolis, Miami,etc), and eventually moved back to Chicago permanently in 2004. We went out once shortly after his move in 2004, but then it became apparent that we couldn't do the whole friends thing and we cut ties completely.

There was one strange incident that occurred a year later when I first started my current job in 2005. I think my cell phone accidentally called his number when my phone was in my purse on the way to work (I didn't have his number still in my cell phone, but it must have still been in the memory somewhere) because he called minutes later. I was so confused at the time and it was only in hindsight that I realized the fluke situation. Funny enough though, he called me later that day and left a message. As I listened to his message, I began to notice he thought I was someone else....one of his coworkers or something, because he said something like "Ok, I'll see you at work later this week...." I had text messaged him back saying "This isn't your coworker Katie....this is the Katie you once dated." A few minutes pass and my phone beeps with a received message apologizing for the mistake. Dumb ass. Had he honestly had a long term memory lapse of that period of time in his life where he was dating me to not remember me? Alrightie then! Fine with me. Andrew then disappears from the radar of Katie's world completely since that time. This brings us to today: Wednesday, August 29, 2007 at approximately 5:24 am.

Katie is listening to music and sitting content as can be on the back of the #156 bus, the first bus of two buses she must take to get to work in the morning. About five minutes into the bus (a few stops past the Sheridan/Diversey stop), who does Katie see get on at the front of the bus: Andrew.

"Please God, no. Tell me it isn't so, that my sleepy eyes are deceiving me!" I immediately think it is ridiculously hilarious in a way, as every once in awhile I will think how funny it is that not ONCE have I run into him the past 3 years anywhere in the city. I have seen guys who at first glance I thought was him, but after a double take realized it was just an odd occurence of momentary mistaken identity, breathing a sigh of relief. No sighs (of relief anyway) today.

I think "Ok, he's going to sit down and won't even know that I am there/that I saw him. No....stop walking, oh shit, he's walking all the way to the back of the bus where I'm at. Crap. What do I say?" He almost glances my way as I almost consider doing the cordial thing (smile and say "Hi")....and then he completely fails to acknowledge me, sitting one seat in front of me on the left side (I was on the right side...obviously). I thought, this is REALLY awkward...and the longest #156 bus ride ever, even though it probably only lasted a total of 5-8 minutes.

In the 5-8 minutes of seemingly awkward eternity, I distracted myself by making the most of it with a "everything happens for a reason" mode of rationale. Again, I recognized the hilarity of it all, especially when I remembered the blog I wrote yesterday about dating revealing more about oneself than the other person....and finding a friend first in a dating partner. What was first an experience of anxiety, I found now to be replaced with relief of lessons learned. I KNOW I wouldn't have been happy with him in the long-term. Hell, I wasn't happy with him in the short term! And he was never even a good friend, slightly mediocre at best.

I pull the cord that signals to the bus driver "stop requested" for the next bus stop, eager to get off the bus and away from Andrew. I stand at the back door....as the bus keeps going. Great, the bus driver isn't stopping. It just keeps getting better. Sigh. I have to quickly walk up the aisle all the way to the front and alert the driver that I had requested to get off one block back. He apologizes. If he only knew that today of all days it would have been nice to get off at the stop without any interruptions. Oh well.

I step off the bus and as I stand there waiting for it to pass by me so that I can start sprinting the 2 minutes back to where I needed to be to make my second transfer bus....I look through the window and see Andrew looking RIGHT at me as the bus slowly drives past me. I knew it! I knew the jackass saw me.

Well, que sera sera insignificant ex-boyfriend. What a morning commute.....