There are certain people that we all have in our lives that belong in a certain setting.  We fail to recognize them as actual people with lives outside of this particular environment.  Seeing them outside of their standard roles can shake us up a bit.  We recognize them as familiar, but can’t place them without the appropriate context.

Case in point:

A while back, my husband and I started attending a church which we finally joined.  After doing the whole church hunting bit, we had finally found one that we really liked.  (Church hunting sucks.  It’s like going on blind dates with 150 new people every weekend.)  So we started attending regularly and getting to know the congregation.

Week after week I saw this woman who just struck me as someone I knew elsewhere.  I tried to place her to no avail.  I tried to write it off.  I had been a bank teller at a bank in the area for a year so lots of people were familiar from there, but again I was unsuccessful.  I was certain that I actually knew this woman.  That I had some regular business with her.  I snooped around to try and find out her name hoping that would jog my memory.  No dice.  I was unsuccessful in discovering her name through basic detective work.

I finally decided to bite the bullet and ask her name directly.  Which she ever so sweetly told me.

The shock realization embarrassment utter-mortification hit me like 3 tons of bricks.  Rather than introduce myself, I immediately jumped onto to table to lie on my back.  I put my knees in the air to peer at her from the far more familiar vantage point.  Ah yes, this woman is acquainted with my vagina.  I kid you not, I go to church with my gynecologist.

Ok, so I didn’t really jump on the table, but I felt like turning myself inside out.  Which, I suppose, would have triggered her memory about how she knows me.

I’m going to see her today.  We’ve both made the connection at this point.  When I leave the office, she will say, “See you Sunday.”  Thankfully, she sees less of me then.