These are strange times indeed...Michigan State football beat Univ. of Michigan two years in a row (Go Green, Go White!)...David Letterman (kinda) got caught with his pants down...Adam and I managed to start and finish a house project within a week...someone actually read and responded to the Ask-A-Question-Thursdays post...and my child is a little over a month away from being half a year old. Wow.
But the weirdness abounded a month or so ago. Adam and I were shopping at Horrocks, our local produce store, trolling the aisles in search of the "good rice" (basmati and/or jasmine). From around the corner of the aisle came a young woman, her eyes large and bright, walking purposefully up to us. The way she was approaching made me think she knew us, but I couldn't place her face. Then I got the over-protective mother instinct and immediately thought she might be brazen enough to try to steal Bryony right in front of us, so I stood my ground, waiting to see what she'd do. Adam looked up at her as she planted herself in front of us.
Girl: "Oh my God! Do you guys remember the second 'Back To The Future' movie when they show the bottle of Pepsi in the future?"
Adam, ever the gentleman, even to psycho strange women who come out of nowhere to quiz us on 1980s movie trivia, replies: "Yeah...? Kind of...oh, yeah, sure!"
I'm looking incredulously at this whole exchange, still trying to figure out how this girl found us out of everyone in the store to swap movie memoribilia with.
Lauren: I never saw "Back To The Future 2".
Girl (to Adam): Doesn't this bottle totally look like that bottle from the movie, the one in the future?
Adam, still being nice even though he's totally perplexed: Yeah, it kinda does...it's been awhile since I've seen that movie...
Girl, looking fondly at the Pepsi bottle in her hand, continues to ramble on about its similarity to the one in the movie.
Adam and Lauren say very fast good-byes and move on.
It wasn't until a few weeks later that Adam and I finally remembered to discuss the incident. We were both completely floored by the fact that she actually found us from another aisle of the store. It would have been a lot less disconcerting if we were shopping next to her and she had struck up conversation with us, but it's like she somehow tracked us down. In fact, now that I think of it, the section of the store we were in is nowhere near the soda aisle. Where the heck did she come from?
Perhaps the weirdest thing of all these days is the fact that I'm a little happy about staying in Michigan for the time being. Yup, that's right, the move is a no-go for us. Georgia has been cancelled, and so has Virginia. Don't get me wrong; I'm bummed by the prospect of a secure income coming our way, but I do like a Michigan fall, and I love my friends here. The idea of moving away, while something we've always looked forward to, has suddenly become a slightly bitter taste in the back of my throat. Perhaps having a support system here--friends to hang out with, loads of honorary aunts and uncles for Bryony, and a sense of comfort and stability that we've assumed over the last seven years--is the draw. I don't know. Of course, eventually we'll leave, but for now, for this autumn, we're here and I can't wait to enjoy all that Michigan has to offer--apple picking, pumpkin patches, gorgeous fall foliage, not to mention "Silver Bells in the City".
We're here for the time being, and freakishly, I'm okay with that.
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