PlazaJen: Passion Knit

Seriously, the difference between me & a meth addict is that my addiction is legal.

I will prove my point shortly. I got up early this morning, meeting my friend Kyra (look at her watching Cesar Milan in her finished socks!) for some coffee before we hit The Studio for their annual sale (25% off everything!) Our friend Jimmi showed up, too, and we huddled & chatted while we waited for them to open. I actually surprised myself with how little I ended up spending - a skein of Schaeffer Anne for socks, two skeins of Noro Kureyon & a co-ordinating color of Woolpak (for a second, modified Kristina) (boy, I'm link-happy today for some reason.) I also got a skein of the softest, yummiest mongolian cashmere, because Kyra was knitting a pair of socks from the same stuff & I fell completely in love with it.

SO, after that adventure, I went to Costco, did some shopping there for staples, and then did a little Thai Place takeout. There was a girl sitting at the bar, looking through the Sunday paper. She looked at me and said, "Do you go to the Thai Orchid, too?"
Uh...... I said, "Well, once in a while. I used to go a lot more often but since this opened in Westport, it's much closer to work."

"Well, I thought it was you. I used to waitress there. Red curry beef, right?"

I could only nod, stupefied. It's been several years since I went there with a lot of regularity. (Of course, red curry beef? That's what I was getting today....)

"And your friend? She always gets the Massaman Tofu."

"Oh, yes, yes, she did."

Hah! I'm not the only one with my addiction. Though I don't know if she meant my friend Liz or my friend Shelley, since that's what they both always got there, and they're both blonde.

There's something about staying in one place for a long time, though, that fosters being known places. Obviously, going to a restaurant 2x/week probably helps reinforce recognition. But it's kind of strange for me, so many connections with people who know the same people, something I see particularly at work. My boss, my friends, all the people who grew up here have that intertwined connectedness even more so. All I ever wanted to do was escape everyone knowing everybody else when I was growing up - after all, in a town of 721 people, the main form of entertainment is staying current on everyone else's business. Being the outsiders, we were like a Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes trainwreck worthy of weekly speculation and gossip. Now, I meet people who know other people I know, and it's kind of fun. Oddly enough, it doesn't bother me the way I thought it might. There's a sense of community in the connections, now. It doesn't feel invasive or oppressing. Come on, sing it with me:

Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.

Yeah, I've become "Norm" at Thai Place & Thai House.