Helen FieldsScience Writer

I know everybody. Ok, not really everybody. But for years, friends who go places with me have known that we will probably run into someone I know. It doesn’t matter where – festival, concert, national park, whatever. I don’t know if I know an abnormally large number of people, or if the people I know all have the exact same taste in events, or if I have unusual recall for familiar faces, or what. But I do know that my world gets brightened pretty regularly by running into people who I’m happy to see. (Fortunately, I also like most of the people I know.)

So my friend and neighbor Sheila suggested I blog about this. I’m skeptical – I mean, how interesting can it be? It also seems kind of self-aggrandizing. Omg, I’m so awesome! I know everybody! But the truth is, I might actually know everybody. And Sheila claims to really like these stories and to think they are worth blogging about. Also, almost every time we go to a restaurant or bar in the neighborhood, which is often, I see someone I know. So, here you go, Sheila.

This is actually a subset of the “I know everybody” genre of story – in which two other people discover that they both know me.

Earlier today, my friend MJ wrote to me on google chat:

We’re in [her employer]’s knitting club right now, and [she forgot to type the name, but it was Heather] said “I have a friend who’s knitting a stegosaurus”

I said “that must be Helen Fields”

Of course it was me. I know MJ professionally and Heather through Washington Revels. They both knew I was knitting a stegosaurus because I can’t help bragging on facebook about all my cool new knitting projects. (Stegosaurus pattern here.)

To make the world even smaller, I would like to point out that I knew both Heather and MJ’s significant others before I (or they) knew Heather or MJ. Heather’s husband went to high school with my brother; I was friends with MJ’s boyfriend in high school.

Update, 7/29: Here’s that stegosaurus.