Cramped By Squarsh

At the bar last night:

Alex: Hey, I think I saw that Evan guy sitting at a table.
Me: Yeah, he keeps throwing ice cubes at me whenever I walk by.

This happens all the time. Not the ice-cube-throwing--the running into people I know. For all its three million inhabitants, Chicago is a small city that grows increasingly miniscule with every new person I meet. Either I'll run into a friend or acquaintance in a bar or on the street, or they'll know someone else I know.


Sometimes it's fun. Sometimes it's not.

Once, out with my brother and a couple of old friends, I ran into a girl we went to high school with. 10 minutes of awkward conversation later, I was incensed for the rest of the evening over her snubbing my friend, whom she had given nothing more than a "hi" to.

Then there was last week, when I ran into a random guy I once met at a bar. (We went out to an ambiguous lunch 'date', exchanged a couple of emails, and that was that.) Since last year, we've run into each other: at the Chicago Public library; on the street in Lincoln Park; in the Fulton Market District. This wouldn't be so odd if we had similar interests, or hung out in the same 'hood, but to continue to run into him all over the city strikes me as burgeoning on redundancy.


Since moving to Chicago, I've run into one of my brother's friends on the sidewalk at Six Corners. I've happened upon two of my old co-workers from the study abroad office, on two separate occassions, walking down the street. Twice I've seen my best friend from kindergarten (whom I also went to junior high and high school with). The first time was at Second City, the second, on the Belmont El platform. We waved and shouted our greetings from opposite sides of the tracks.

Then there are the people who know other people I know. (You know?) Seeing as how Chicagoans are disproportionately from Illinois suburbs or the University of Illinois, it's easy to get sucked into the same U of I vortex as the one I was in in college.

Example 1.) Invited by a friend and fellow alumn, I attended a U of I night at a bar only to find that one of his former frat brothers is an acquaintance of mine. We actually ended up living across the hall from each other in London after we graduated.

Example 2a.) I met another U of I alumn, I., through a mutual friend who'd studied abroad with us. Turns out she and Alex went to high school together.

Example 2b.) Bringing her boyfriend to my party, I find out he works with my cousin-in-law.

Example 2c.) He brought some of his friends to my party, and one of them lived in the dorms with Example 1's girlfriend their freshman year.

Example 3.) Again, at my party, a random girl who drives a rickshaw somehow showed up. Does she know a friend of mine who's not even at the party? Of course!

Example 4.) Does said friend know my friend's friend? Yup.

Example 5.) On a blind meeting/date with the Austrian Vice-Council right after moving here, I find out he is friends with my only other foreign acquaintance in the city of Chicago, a French guy.


I could go on and on, but you see my point. While comforting, it can also be cloying. Surely there is someone out there I don't have a connection to? Somewhere? That said, when I lived in London I yearned for nothing more than seeing a friendly face on the street.

We can't win 'em all.