(no subject)

Late one night in a grocery store, this was maybe six, eight years ago, the cashier was astonished at me when I spoke to him while checking out. He told me he'd thought I was deaf. I told him I was deaf in my left ear, he must have said something into that one at some point. He looked dissatisfied.

A few weeks later when I came into the store he said there was a deaf man after all, who looked exactly like me. And he was still in the store, he'd just gone toward the back. I was thrilled and ran looking for myself but there was no one in the store, except some slovenly guy who looked nothing like me inspecting eggs. I went back and reported the disappointment and the cashier was puzzled. The man had come into the store just ahead of me and there were no other customers. It wasn't until I'd driven halfway home that I let myself accept that the man who looked nothing like me must be my full deaf double.

And this year we watched Once and I noticed almost at once, with some discomfort, that the male lead looks exactly like me, save for being taller and red-haired and with laudable chin definition--therefore much better-looking. Julie was amazed when I pointed it out, and claims he even wears his jeans the same, and that she was vindicated in thinking I looked like a rock star when she first saw me. Which I don't, but I do look like this musician (therefore undeaf) and actor Irishman. Last week my sister even took some time off from her crisis-ridden new job at the New York Fed to send down a copy of the DVD, having noticed this resemblance independently.

So things can always be better or worse than they are. I guess I'm a middle me.

And how automatically I rejected recognizing the first, how quickly I saw the resemblance with the second.