pierre le gique

I seriously dislike running into people I know in public.

It is impossible for me to walk into Wegman's without seeing someone I know. It happened again this afternoon, and I was alone so I couldn't pretend I didn't notice my high school AP French teacher the 3 times we passed each other because I was too busy chit-chatting with my companion.

First, it was on the way in to the store. Maybe this was excusable, because I wasn't really sure if it was him. After all, it's been nearly 10 years since my last day of high school. I also can't remember if I actually went to French class that day. (I skipped a lot of classes senior year.)

The second time I passed him, I was on the way to the pet food aisle for a supply of guinea pig kibble and dog treats for Harley. He was stopped at that podium-station thing near the pharmacy, talking with a uniform-clad employee. He looked right at me; we made eye contact. I kept right on walking.

Then, the third time he passed me, I was in the, ahem, tampon aisle. I prayed he wouldn't stop to talk.

I guess it wouldn't have been that big of a deal to talk to him. He wasn't a bad teacher and it wasn't a horrible class. Of course, he had his little pets, but who could blame him when he had not one male student in that class? He was pretty cool about a video 2 classmates and I once made for a class project. If I remember correctly, in it we were supposed to demonstrate the usage of a particular verb tense. Anyway, we dressed up as hippies and "simulated" smoking pot while lip-singing along to Neil Diamond's Cracklin' Rosie.