Small world

I spent the long weekend in Portland with my family. I may write more about it later, but for now I'll just tell an amusing anecdote. On Friday I walked to the Lloyd Center from the Pearl (where my parents' new condo is) to meet up with Dan and Lynn Steffan, and along the way I spotted a woman who looked vaguely familiar from a distance. She was walking with a guy. When I got up to them, I suddenly realized that she's a cook at the Pacific Inn pub, just down the street from my house in Seattle. All this time and I'd never learned her name or exchanged more than a friendly smile and a few words with her as she set food down in front of me, and it's always strange when you only know someone in one context to run into them outside that context.

"Fancy meeting you here," I said.

She laughed, thought for a second, and blurted out, "Chicken caesar salad!"

Which is what I usually order at the Pacific Inn.

Turned out she was in town visiting her son, who was the young guy with her. We finally exchanged names, even if we had to go to another city to do it.