It's a Small World

Originally posted Oct. 26, 2005

So I was in my good friend Beth's wedding over the weekend, and it was like a thousand worlds collided. As long as I've known Beth, there have always been these "small-world" coincidences involving her. I was detailing it to my mom last night, and she said I should write it down. Thus, another insightful blog entry. :0)

OK, so Beth and I were hired on the same day -- Sept. 18, 1995 -- at Blackhawk Movies 7. We worked together for a year before she moved on to Crow Canyon Cinemas, then to World Savings, then to a mortgage company. We kept in contact off and on over the years, but lost touch somewhere around the time she was at the mortgage company.

All the while I was working at Movies 7. Then, in 2000, I moved on to a newspaper in Pleasanton, where I worked upstairs on the copy desk. That's when I met my friend Jenn, who was an image technician (she color-corrected photos...not my image, alas). One day I mentioned that I used to work at Movies 7. She said, "Oh, my best friend used to work there!" I asked her who her best friend was, and she said Beth. A phone call later, we had reestablished contact. It was all very small-world how the three of us happened to work together at different times, because we didn't go to the same high school or anything. Heck, we didn't even grow up in the same town.

Skip forward to last Thursday, when we were preparing to carve pumpkins at Beth's future in-laws' house. A woman walked in with the cutest baby ever. We were ooh'ing and aah'ing over him when Jenn asked what his full name is. The woman said his last name is Stockstill. I knew she was visiting from back East, but I mentioned that I used to go to junior college with a guy named Brett Stockstill -- he was a photographer on the paper when I was the editor at DVC. She said, "That's the baby's uncle!" And Beth added: "That's the photographer at our wedding!" Weird. So I saw Brett this weekend for the first time in probably 8 years.

That takes us to Saturday. We stayed in the Marriott in San Ramon on Friday night, then got up on Saturday and went to get our hair done. As we were walking back into the hotel after the appointment, a guy behind the hotel counter said, "Beth." We turned around, and it was one of our freakin' managers from the movie theater! Another person we hadn't seen in about 8 years. He remembered us both, and ended up comping our room and sending up a big bottle of champagne for Beth's big day. I was feeling positively creepy at this point...too many coincidences!

We get to the wedding and I see Chris, who used to work with us at Movies 7 and whom I haven't seen in about 3 years. I ask him if he still talks to any of the old crew. He says he's still friends with Jeff and Sean. I'm like Jeff... he used to go out with my friend Lauren from high school. Chris says yup. Then he asks if I remember Lisa, who I went to high school with and who worked with us. I say yes, and he says she and Sean are getting married soon. I guess they got together about 3 years ago. Yikes...more worlds colliding.

I thought it ended there, but then I was relating all this to my sister last night. When I got to the part about the Marriott, she said, "Wait, you were staying in the San Ramon Marriott on Friday? This may just be coincidence, but this girl Monica I worked with 5 years ago at Barnes & Noble came into Whole Foods on Saturday and said she was in town for a wedding. I couldn't believe I saw her!" I asked her if Monica has black hair and a bunch of tattoos; she said yes. Me: "That's Beth's niece!" As it turns out, my sister and Beth's niece did indeed work together 5 years ago in Walnut Creek. How super bizarre is that??

So, it ends there...so far. My sis and I started talking about how she had been thinking about Monica lately for no reason at all...and then there she was in Whole Foods on Saturday. And I said that when I was at the theater, I'd see a bunch of people in one day who would remind me of a certain person, and then at the end of the day, I'd see that person. It got to the point where I started expecting to see someone after a few "false sightings." And I always did.

There's gotta be a name for that.