Jeremy, Brian, Mo & Andy
So here is a story for you.... This is such a convoluted story, and sort of lengthy, so try to stay with me. Helene came down 2 weekends ago so Andy and I could go to see the Dark Star Orchestra....the best Grateful Dead cover band I have ever heard. If you aren't looking at the band, you would never know you weren't hearing the Dead. Anyway, we went to a bar called the Wave House in Mission Beach to hear them. The Wave House is a great place to see concerts. It's outside right next to the ocean. You stand on sand... it's just a fun venue. Now I'm going to back up about a month and a half. I was taking David to school and was talking to the Dad of the twins in his class, Kendal and Kayla. Jeremy, the Dad, is a dead head, so we talk music sometimes. I mentioned to him that Andy and I were going to see DSO in October. The date came closer and Jeremy was on again, off again going to the show. I offered for him to go to the show with us if he couldn't find anyone to go with. A couple of his friends decided to go a few days before the show, so I figured we would see him there. I told him we were meeting some friends there too. Now, that week before the show, Jeremy and I were both volunteering in the classroom on the same day. He started to tell me about his honeymoon cruise in 2004 and how it was really a bunch of older people who were no fun. At some point they were somewhere on the ship where dancing was involved and they spotted a couple of hippies dancing. They decided they needed to meet them, which they did...along with another hippy couple who was on the cruise with hippy dancers. They ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the cruise.
Saturday night came and we headed off to the show. We had a ticket to sell, and Andy sold it right near the door. It turned out the guy he sold it to was from Dix Hills on Long Island, 15 minutes from Woodbury where Andy lived. Had they had more time to talk, I know they would have found people they know in common. Forget about 7 degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon, I think the whole U.S. is about 2 steps from Andrew Stitzer if you talk long enough. Seriously, he knows someone everywhere he goes. So when we were wrapping up our goodbyes with our new found friends we sold the ticket to, Andy turns and says "Hey Bill" to someone. Bill nodded his head and said "how you doing?" I turned to see which 'Bill' friend Andy was talking to. I turned to see I saw eye to elbow with Bill and looked up to see that it was Bill Walton. (Portland Trail Blazers, San Diego/LA Clippers and Celtics basketball star) I saw Bill at Target once 25-ish years ago. I think he was still with the Clippers. He and a buddy were looking for ice cube trays. Bill is a big dead head too. I had my camera with me, but not out, so I didn't get a picture. I was determined to snap a shot with him and looked for him the rest of the night, but to no avail. I would head to some part of the bar and ask if anyone had seen him and they would say yeah, he just headed that way...then I would head off that way and he would have just left... I never did find him again. For that, he would probably be grateful.
We planned to meet our good friend Ilena at the show. Ilena was Andy's babysitter growing up in Rockaway Beach, NY. They have always been friends and always will be. She is a HUGE dead head. We were also going to meet Brian and Mo (Maureen)....friends I first met at our wedding. They came to our reception after the dinner portion we had about a gazillion people there and couldn't possibly have invited a gazillion and 1, so they came after dinner along with Tom and Julie, another dead head couple, fun friends of Ilena and Andy. We had the Travel Agents play..... a GD cover band. (Andy and I both used to go hear them play long before we ever knew each other.) So back to the concert.... We went in and immediately found Jeremy and his 2 friends. We ended up hanging out with them all show. The band started playing and they were great. At some point Jeremy and I both headed to the bar. There were 2 bars and we both went to the same one, a few minutes apart. I was at the bar when I saw Jeremy stop to talk to some friends. I got my beer and went back with Andy. Jeremy came back after a little while and said to his friends that he had run into a guy he met while on his honeymoon cruise....one of the "hippy" people. I heard him say this and couldn't believe it as he had just told me the story a few days before. He went back to talk some more. What a small world! A little later I saw Jeremy talking to a friend he had brought back to where we were standing. Andy turned and said "isn't that Brian?" to which I said no, that's a friend of Jeremy's. Ilena finally found us and said hellos to all, including Brian, who was standing, talking with Jeremy. Andy was right, Jeremy was standing with our friend Brian. Mo was off visiting with some friends she knew there, and soon came along too and re-met Jeremy. So let me recap how small the world is. Jeremy told me a story of the hippys he met on his honeymoon in 2004. Jeremy had met our friends Brian and Mo and Tom and Julie. He never told me their names, so I didn't make the connection when he told me the story. He also didn't tell me they were from the area....they could have been from anywhere. Unfortunately, Julie died a few years ago. Tom wasn't at the concert, so Jeremy didn't get to see him. Andy met these 2 couples through Ilena and have been friends for years. It was a great night of good music, dancing and spending time with great friends.
It's a small world after all!
Ilena and Andy
Brian and Mo
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