The other day I was telling my husband about how I recently walked into my favorite Thai resturant to pick up my to go order and Tom, who I work with, was sitting in a booth facing me. Tom is great guy, so I give him a big smile and wave. "Tom" sort of nervously shifts his eyes from side to side and silently confirms to himself that yes, it is him that I am waving at and slowly waves back at me like he is mentally filing me away as a potential stalker.
Sometimes, actually quite a bit, I talk without thinking. As I was about to run over, punch Tom and ask what is wrong with him, I realize that as weird as it may seem, this guy might not be Tom. For one of the first times in my life, I stop myself and I don't talk myself into a hole. I just leave. A few days later, I see Tom's twin from the Thai resturant walking into Lifetime Fitness with a Lifetime Fitness uniform on. The guy from the Thai place really wasn't Tom!
So, as I was saying, I tell my husband this story and he says "Oh, Tom has a Doppelgänger."
Doppelganger. Doppelganger. Doppelganger. I CAN NOT stop saying that word... over and over in my head (Doppelganger...Doppelganer) since Jake said it. I have heard it a million times in my life, but for some reason I can't stop thinking about the word Doppleganger.
I am a Doppelganger...over and over and over again.
From high school on, I have been mistaken for someone else or have been told that I look like someone else more times than I could ever count. In high school, when I started to meet kids from other schools, I was told that I looked like a girl that went to one of the other high schools in town.
After high school, that very girl and I went to the same college and on many occassions people got us mixed up. And to make it even crazier, there was a third girl at that same college that looked like us. To really mix things up, I became friends with each of them. I don't think they ever became friends, so the circle was never completely closed. Quite often, I would hear something like "how did you get here so fast, weren't you just in class". This was during my first two years of college, so that was easy...No, I can confidently confirm that I was not in class...usually ever.
I visit doctors' offices quite a bit for work and 1 in 5 doctors agree that they know me from somewhere. Sometimes I say things like "well, I have had quite a few issues with Plantir Fasciitis, so maybe" - but, really I know we have never met.
Recently, I was at a shoe store and a woman looked downright annoyed with me. I asked her if I was in her way...possibly blocking her view of fabulous merchandise and she said, "No! Don't you remember me!" I had never seen her before. We went through the usual cross referencing of friends and activities and confirmed that no, we didn't know each other.
Right before Christmas, I was shopping at Ann Taylor Loft and I just couldn't make up my mind between a necklace and pj's for my sister-in-law. I ended up not giving her either gift, but the very, very nice lady behind the counter (who I had never seen before) says "well, if you change your mind before Christmas, you can always just return it. You are always so fun when you come in. We just want you to be happy". Unless her idea of fun is me dragging her into the dressing room and asking her if my butt looks big, I am pretty sure she's got the wrong lady in mind.
So, last night, after church, Jake, Daniel, Cal, Molly and myself stopped at Super Target for a few things. We were on our way to the checkout line when my 11 year old son says "Mom, those people are staring at you". I look over at who he is talking about and it is a Mom type looking lady and her two young daughters (maybe 9-11 year olds). She looks familiar, so I wave and she waves back and we keep moving. I say to Daniel, "What makes you think they were looking at me? Maybe they were looking at you and Calvin. Maybe those girls were looking at you!" This seemed to really interest both of my boys and all of a sudden they got incredibly squirrelly.
We were about to walk out of Super Target when the Mom and her daughters walk up to us. As I am mentally getting ready to figure out how we know each other, she (THE MOM) walks right up to my 11 year old son Daniel and says "didn't I just see you at the hockey rink!"
Doppelganger, Doppelganger, Doppelganger, Doppelganger, Doppelganger!!!!
I just can't stop saying that word!
