Tiny, tiny world

The Harrisburg metropolitan area has a populace of approx. 250,000 people. The chances of crossing paths with people you know randomly for a second time are pretty slim. Yet, this morning, I had an abrupt encounter with an old pseudo-friend. Lugging my 4 month old, securely strapped into his bulky car seat, I swung through the front door of Ryan's babysitter's dwelling. "I know this guy". A big grin magnified from between his goatee (the current popular display of male grooming). At first his name escaped me. Yes, I knew this guy too. Mike... Mike Mendez, it's been six years since our last encounter - and that was over the phone. Mike attended Bloomsburg U in the graduating class behind me. He was in some of my marketing classes, but we hung out primarily because we were members of the same fraternity. I graduated in 1995 and Mike left either in Dec of '96 or the spring of '97. A few years later he popped back up on the radar screen as we both lived in Mechanicsburg in the early 2000's. I being recently married while Mike pounded the local radio circuit doing promotional grunt work. Despite attempts to get together on a few occasions, we never did. Laurie and I were extremely busy and Mike had a funky revolving schedule. Fast forward to today. Eva (the babysitter) babbled about how strange it was, but fragmented any real attempt to ascertain where each other was in their lives. I guess that's for another time. Mike passed me a business card.... Marketing Manager for Hershey Entertainment, impressive. Whether or not this extends into something more personal remains to be seen. Yet, I can't help wondering why this guy keeps popping into my life, in spite of the odds.