Oct. 1, 2006: So, how's THIS for weird?

Current mood:contemplative

"You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Twilight Zone!"
Thursday. September 28, 2006. An ordinary day in the life of a copyeditor.  Or it should have been.
Did ya ever have one of those weeks?
It's sort of a long story, but on Thursday, my aunt (who works at the paper with me), came over to my desk and told me that my dad had called her because he was having trouble getting ahold of my mom (he lives in Springfield), and he ALLEGEDLY had just learned of her illness (even though she emailed him in August) and was worried when her phone was constantly busy. Nothing was wrong, of course.  People were online at the house.  So anyway, he called my aunt.
As we were talking, one of my fellow copy deskers came in after being off for two days and happened to overhear our conversation.  I didn't really mind, because we are friends (we went with her to see Clapton).  She mentioned that she overheard a name and was wondering who we were talking about because she once dated a man by the same name.  I didn't figure it was possible at first, but after much discussion, it turns out that she actually dated him AT THE SAME TIME as he was dating my mom!
And it gets BETTER!  A few years ago, this coworker was doing some freelance work for a printing company here in town where my mother happened to work at the time.  They actually met there, and discussed my dad AND ME!  Of course, I was about 10 at the time.  This coworker is about a year and a half younger than my mom.  I, of course, was burning with curiosity about all this, so, naturally, I called my mother. I asked her when she met my dad, and immediately she asked where I was going with this.  But she told me, and once we had established a timeline, I asked if she remembered the lady at the printing company who had also dated him.  She DID remember, and she even remembered the woman's first name.  I told her about our discovery, and we all got a big laugh out of it.  But I was weirded out the rest of the day.  Why?  Well...
For those of you who know me personally and are reading this, how many of you have ever met my dad?
That's what I thought.
I run into people all the time who know my mom from school or work or church or whatever.  Not ONCE have I just happened to run into someone who knew or knows my dad.  Much less end up sitting RIGHT NEXT to someone who DATED him.  I mean, think of all the stuff that had to happen in our lives so that we'd meet up that way.  Mind boggling, really.  I mean, she's worked all over the place, and has worked at the paper for a long time, but has only been a copy editor for a while.  I had intended to be a journalism major, but decided I didn't like it, so I majored in something else instead, but still ended up working in a similar field. And even then, it was like 2 years after I graduated that I found a job in the field. And my dad would NEVER normally call my aunt.  So the fact we were discussing him at work at all is odd.  But we were, and at just the right time for my coworker to overhear us. Just all kinds of crap like that.  I hate it when the universe doubles over on itself like that...  Ugh... Thursday was a long day.