Sometimes I really feel like I know everybody.  Well, maybe not everybody, but I certainly know a hell of a lot of people.  When I met my friend Katie last fall, someone told her that if she talks to me for ten minutes, we’ll find out that we know at least one person in common.  And of course, that’s exactly what happened. 

But this weekend’s small world story is thanks to the magic of Dodgeball.  Unlike the recent article in New York Magazine, this had nothing to do with dating, but I think Dennis will get a kick out of it nonetheless.

So on Saturday night, I went to a birthday party, and I checked into Dodgeball, letting my group of friends know where I am.  In that group is one Andrew Hearst.  About 20 minutes later, he showed up and said, "I’d like you to meet my friend, Matthew Price."  Matthew is the brother of Ali, a very close childhood friend with whom I have recently reconnected, but I had not seen Matthew since I moved to New York from D.C. — about 1981 (24 years, which is terrifying enough on its face).  Turns out Andrew and Matthew go back a number of years, having worked together at Lingua Franca, and Andrew had been explaining Dodgeball to Matthew when my message came in.  He explained, "here’s a message from my friend Laren."  Matthew recognized the (rather unusual) name, so they figured out the small world coincidence.  Turns out Matthew’s a bit of a foodie as well, so we’re all going to go out together and hit one of the new barbecue joints.

On top of that, last night I was at a pizza party for the Kismet house, when I ran into a woman who looked very familiar.  Turns out that she and I had taken a nonprofit management class together at Wagner School of Public Service (and when we did, we realized we knew someone in common — a woman from my childhood in D.C.).  She’ll be in the house this summer.

Makes me realize that despite its size, New York really does manage to feel like a small community, and I absolutely love that.