It's a Small World

You've all heard of the 6 degrees of separation theory, where everyone is six steps (or people) away from everyone else on the earth. I'm not sure if I buy that so much, although I have successfully linked myself to President Obama (such a good story, my cousin met him in a grocery store in Chicago, long before he was president) and the Unabomber (if my coworker was right that he did once walk into the Prendergast Library). Sometimes it's not so much people, but institutions or ideas that you didn't expect to find somewhere else.

Exhibit A: Wegmans. (If you don't know what Wegmans is, you should. Check it here.) Despite having never heard of it before, my friends here have finally put up with my incessant Wegmans talk, although they sometimes forget the name ("hey what's that grocery store called that you're obsessed with?") I was at my local grocery store a few days ago and was checking out with, of course, my Wegs reusable bags. It went like this.
Clerk: Hey, I like your Wegmans bag.
Me: Wait, you know what Wegmans is?!
Clerk: Only the best grocery store OF ALL TIME. I'm from Philly. Are you from Ithaca? [this must be the new upstate representative city]
Me: No, I went to school in Geneva but I'm from the Buffalo area.
Clerk: Wow, I bet there are lots of Wegmans there!
Me: For sure. My school was only 45 minutes from the flagship one, so we would randomly go there sometimes.
Clerk: Jealous! The one in Philly has a bar in it. It's perfect.
Me: Seriously!? I would never leave.
Clerk: I know! They only built it my senior year, and I was so mad that I missed all that Wegmans bonding time when I was at school.

Then we realized we were both first year masters candidates, in different fields, but it was pretty cool. Equally cool was when I first met my advisor in the week before classes and was a bit nervous. I walked into his office and there was a Wegmans bag on his desk, so of course I went, "it's nice to meet you. Wait, is that a Wegman's bag?" and he said, "yes! Greatest grocery store ever. My wife is from Rochester. You're not one of those people who has a Danny Wegmans shrine, are you?" I assured him I wasn't, we talked about Wegs granola, and we have been on good terms since.

Similarly connected to the web of Wegmans fanatics is an ever-growing web of art historians and art history students. Which brings me to:

Exhibit B: our art history symposium yesterday. We have, I do believe, the oldest grad student run and organized art history symposium in the country, with two panels of three graduate student speakers and then a keynote at the end with a fancy reception at the end. It was a long day, as set-up for breakfast started as 8:00 am and we left the reception at 8:45 pm, and then proceeded to go out--so I was pretty sick of wearing tights by the end! My fellow and sister students put in a lot of work. I was on the publicity committee, and so was in charge of community calendars and the like, which was a tiny fraction of what some of the other students had on their plate. And it went off quite well! Our theme was "Dearly Departed: Memory, Absence and Devotion in Art History and Visual Culture," with the keynote on "Memorial Mania" in the contemporary US, focusing especially on September 11th memorials. The turn-out was decent, and hanging out with the guest grad students was very cool. I got to chatting with one who is at a school I am thinking of applying to down the road, and she researches female tombs in the Renaissance! And I do love me some female architectural patronage. Refreshingly, she was also as anti-Florence as I am. (Nothing against Florence, as I'm sure it is a lovely place, but Rome is where it's AT. Or Venice. I have to make that research decision soon, and I don't know which way to go, but that is a story for another time.)

Oh, and the six degrees of separation thing? One of the speakers was someone who was in my interview group at another university last year. We both ended up going other places, we facebook friended each other with congratulations and the promise to let each other know what we were up to, art history-wise, which of course we did not do. When we got the list of participants I kept thinking his name was familiar, but couldn't place it. And then his facebook status was something like "packing for Bloomington" and it clicked. So we got to catch up yesterday, which was nice too. He is a pedantic but well meaning person, and very well-informed about 17th c Dutch painting, which I don't know much about but like all the same. All in all, a fun and tiring day. I have to do about a month of laundry today (it is dire) and other unexciting things, and am looking forward to my next random encounter!