Where Everybody Knows Your Name

One of the benefits (and disadvantages, actually) of living in a small town is that people "know" you. They know your history, your families history, and different things about you--hobbies, favorite food, the clothes you usually wear, etc. This being "known" is nice, in a way, but sometimes it's nice to NOT be known, to be able to invent yourself as someone else without many preconceived notions about you.

Where am I going with this? Well, it's been nice being anonymous as one of the 2.5 million in Brooklyn, but sometimes it gets a little tiring. I don't want to keep having to tell people where I went to school, or what my favorite color is, I want them to KNOW. I'm lazy. What makes it harder is that I don't have a usual spot or routine that makes me known. I'm not a consistent enough drinker to have a regular bar. I don't drink coffee, so I don't buy it from a certain bodega every morning, on the way to a job that I don't have. I don't order the same food from the same restaurants. I get bored with taking the same routes, so I walk different blocks at different times, and take different trains (not that this would matter--it's not like I stare at my fellow commuters and try to remember them.)

However, where I do go on a regular basis is the corner store next to our apartment, and I like to think that the guys who work there recognize me. For the most part at least, they know that I never want a bag, and that I'm usually buying seltzer. But here is what happened today. I sprinted to this store for orange juice (twas pouring), and lo and behold, behind the counter was the youngest brother, who I haven't seen in a few months (he's in school, presumably, so he was around a lot in the summer, but not now.) This is how the conversation went.

Store guy: LADY!! Where have you BEEN lately?
Me: Where have I been? Where have YOU been?? I haven't seen you in awhile!
Store guy: I'm here most Saturday afternoons, you must not be coming in then.
Me: That must be it. [he waves a bag at me] naw, I'm good without a bag.
Store guy: [skeptical eyebrow raise, and points out the window] do you see that? What is it doing outside??
Me: Raining...
Store guy: your juice is going to get all wet. Is this what you want?
Me: Really, I'll be fine. It's a quick walk!
Store guy: Hey, I'll see you soon right? Maybe next time you buy some seltzer?
Me: you can bet on it.

I'm known. Sort of.