Two stories showing Portland is a smallish big place. Or a biggish small place.

2004-03-12 at 9:04 a.m.

1. At Nicole's party, an event of about, oh, thirteen people? Bruce, who's just moved here, finds that the job he's starting tomorrow is also the workplace of Sara, a woman he meets that night. It's a small firm, about a dozen employees. None of the rest of us work in this particular industry. And Craig, someone else he's meeting that night, knows the company owner well. At the same party, Craig realizes that he helped Sara's husband Dave get his job. Craig meets Sara for the first time that night.

2. My student teaching gig this spring is with a math teacher in Southwest, at the high school that my bookstore boss went to. In fact, she remembers this particular teacher. From twenty years ago. As it turns out, a member of Andrew's darts team has a daughter in this particular math class. With this particular math teacher.