you remind me



I’m a traveling man, your modern day nomad, and I’ve learned a few things about traveling. Things such as: along with discovering new places one also discovers new faces. I’m not referring to new reactionary facial expressions generated by my face due to the new place I’ve “discovered”, I mean meeting new (as in to me, not new born or some undiscovered new race) people.



It’s great to meet new people, it’s exciting and well… new however it is also awkward. That’s right, the term “meet new people” is often falsely reminisced. Upon hearing this infamous phrase, insecure boy/girl friends have had their hearts ripped out, trampled to dust, and then swept up with a broom and dustpan. Why is that? Because “meet new people” usually refers to those new people that you instantly click with, Those attractive looking people where the conversation flows like wine (and we’re not talking 2 buck chuck).



TANGENT: We (as humans) repress the bad memories, ask me about any relationship and I’ll tell you they were all filled with utter bliss and harmony. It’s only with a pick, spade, and jackhammer that I can dig up the dark memories of “I dunno, I just got over you“, “ let’s just be friends “ and the ever so popular “ I met someone ameer… ” heck, most of those quotes are catch phrases for me by now.



Back to “meeting new people”, I’m not aiming to prove my degree of loser-dome nor the fact that I’ve personally “met someone new”… I’ve got another topic on my mind here…



I’ve met new people during my excursion to san Francisco, once in a while I meet someone who reminds me of a person that I already know. This new person, and the old person I’m reminded of, have never met each other and most likely will never meet. However, there are entities that these two people share that I find similar such as facial features, the method in which they talk, their interests… the list is enormous. This brings me to a very difficult decision, do I tell the new person that I know of someone that reminds me of them? The thing is, “hey I have a friend just like you” isn’t particularly flattering.



While hanging out with a buddy of mine, I met one of his friends, a girl who reminded me of a former roommate. This girl and I were introduced and then my buddy had to attend to something else which left this new girl and me alone together. I kept looking at this girl, thinking in my head, “geez, this girl reminds me of my old roommate!!” yet I pushed that phrase like a bulldozer as far as I could from my mouth. When before my very eyes, and ears, she slammed me with “you totally remind me of this friend of mine!”



In my attempts to save her the feeling of being a clone, someone who is a carbon copy of someone else, a non-individual, a number, a serialized entity in this photocopy world we live in… it was I who felt less unique, disposable, insignificant, and I felt like I’d be “trying” if I then told her that she reminded me of my former roommate.



I disregarded what she said and I tried to not give the body language of “oh, I do? That’s just great, hey… how about those Mets?!” but I’m not sure it worked as she soon ended our conversation about Nike vs. Reebok in the 90’s and ran off to hang out with the friends that she arrived to the bar with.



To remedy the situation (sarcasm) I talked to my former roommate later on in the week and told her that i met someone that reminded me of her. Of course my roommate, being more comfortable with me than I was with the recently met new person, scrutinized the other girl and basically forced me to tell her just how different the two of them were. Not that they were clones of each other, but there was similarities I had noticed.



Maybe it’s better to simply have no conversation than to have the “you totally remind me of my friend” conversation. Remember it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.