Sunday
Today's theme is confusion. We live in a building with a front desk. When we moved in, I had many opportunities to interact with the helpful staff. I asked questions, reported problems, checked inventories, etc. During that time, I developed situational favorites: the parted-hair-guy was excellent with computers. The woman-with-glasses was tirelessly helpful, if less bilingual than sometimes necessary. The woman-without-glasses was the all-round most professional smilingly friendly staffer available. I was confused without even knowing it--right up until we returned from the city book fair, today. I'd been a little confused about this fair, too, but I'd been aware of that. Was this a traditional, centrally located event; or was it happening on bookstore displays across the city? Turns out the former: it was centralized in a park roughly five blocks over and up from our building. Today was sun-blasted, neatly dry with blistering heat, but we trekked over there anyway since today was also the last day of the event. We had a good time. In the middle of purchasing, I noticed my house key was missing from my wallet. No problem: we just borrowed the "lockout" key from the desk when we returned to our lobby. While Sunshine asked the very competent woman-without-glasses for that key, another very competent woman-without-glasses stepped into the lobby from the office. What? Twins? No, upon second look, they don't look that much alike. Still, I've certainly been conflating these two women-without-glasses for months. That one is definitely the staffer I took to be my favorite when she does this... but no, wait, this one is recognizably the favorite when she does that. They are each like puzzling pieces of the one all-helpful persona I've created in my head (even while pondering how she manages working all three shifts). [Cavin]
this had happened to Mr. Cavin by 7:06:00 PM
Then, a 1 sided conversation ensued...
An addendum: one of the things edited out of the story above: somewhere, over the last almost five months (day after tomorrow is the five-month celebration), the woman-with-glasses faded away and we don’t see her anymore. Maybe she got a new job somewhere else. I never even realized she was missing until Sunshine and I were discussing today's revelation that there are now two woman-without-glasses-es. This was not interesting enough to take up precious space in my short Update, and I wouldn’t even be mentioning it now if we hadn't run into the ol' woman-with-glasses in the lobby on the way back out to dinner this evening. How weird. She waved gaily at us. She was dressed in street clothes, rather than the building's uniform. But there she was, first time in months, I guess. Irony may have synchronicity, but I am convinced that there is really only that one woman-with-glasses. Of course, desk staffers seem to be rising in record numbers down in the lobby, lord knows what'll be waiting for me tomorrow.
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