Doppelgangers

Ever see someone from the corner of your eye who looks remarkably like some long-lost friend or relative? That happened to me today in the car. A guy drove by who looked remarkably like an old boyfriend--at least for the few seconds I actually saw his face. We drove in the same direction for a while, but I didn't do anything like honk or wave since I'm pretty sure it isn't him.

A couple years ago I thought I saw a long-lost friend while driving on I-80 in New Jersey. We were both headed in the same direction and I actually got behind her and followed her for a while. A couple days later, I saw her again. I didn't follow, but I halfheartedly tried looking her up on the Internet to see if she'd moved to New Jersey. I got nowhere. But the sightings continued. Obviously the two of us were taking the same route in to work in the mornings. Then one day, we both pulled into the same gas station. Wasn't her.

Another time I was standing outside the building where I work when I saw someone I thought was one of our tech support guys, only he looked about 10 years older and 20 pounds fatter. Again, I didn't say anything and I'm glad I didn't since I saw the tech guy a few days later and he hadn't aged or gained weight. I've seen the other guy around, too. It's a remarkable resemblance, but I never wanted to ask him if has an older, fatter brother. Plus, people can get offended if you tell them they look like someone else.

A couple weeks ago at the King of Prussia mall a woman came up to me and started asking how my shopping was going. I thought she was extraordinarily friendly and not a little nosy. Turns out she thought I was a friend from Bryn Mawr. "You have a double," she said. In fact, I'm always being told I look like someone else--both the famous and nonentities. I attribute this to my fairly regular features and my penchant for changing hairstyles. So when Molly Ringwald was being pretty in pink, I had people telling me I looked like her. I've also been told I look like Bette Midler, Brooke Shields, Karen Black and Kate Winslet. Since none of them look like each other, it stands to reason I don't look much like them either.