its almost like being in glendale

I met an armenian man on the T a few months ago. I'm not sure I ever blogged it so pardon me if this is a repeat...

I was on the B line inbound - I can't remember where I was going but i'm pretty sure it was further than my usual trip to Kenmore (in fact, I may have been on my way to my job interview for the job I have now - but I can't recall...)

I walked straight to the back of the train and leaned against the back wall - I was reading something - perhaps a newspaper. The man sitting in the last seat next to the stairs (in the old train cars its a single seat) caught my eye. There was nothing extraordinary about him...He had on a white T-shirt and blue jeans... shaved head/bald... darker skin. But what really caught my eye was a tattoo on his neck - it was an eagle or something - in red, blue and orange. At first I figured it was a mere coincidence but then I figured I might as well ask...

"I'm sorry - this might seem random but... are you armenian?"

Sure enough he was - and a total parska hye at that. I mean, straight on sing songing and rounded out words and everything. He seemed in love with the idea of living in california and asked me several times if i like it there and whether i miss it. We chit chatted and eventually parted ways.

This morning, I woke up around 6 am but decided I didn't want to be at work just yet. I knew I was going to be staying late for a training so I figured I'd catch the 9:45 train in rather than the 8 or 8:30 trains. So, I hit the snooze and napped a few hours then took my time getting ready. Sure enough, I ended up running late. I walked down to the D-line stop and when it got there, I quickly jumped on and ran towards the back and leaned against the wall. When I looked up, I immediately recognized the tattoo. There he was - same seat, white t-shirt and blue jeans.... what a coincidence! Of all the trains I could have taken. And this time I wasn't on the B line - that would have been a bit more expected (you often bump into the same people on the same lines). Anyway, I wasn't sure if he'd remember me so I said... "You might not remember but we met right here on the train..." and he immediately responded with, "Hye es?" So we chit chatted a little about life and school and the weather.

Later on in the afternoon, I headed out with my co-workers to the training thing. The program was held at the Peter Torigian Community Center in Peabody. Former Armenian Mayor I guess...(article on festival Torigian started). When I got there, I looked over the registration sheet and immediately saw that 2 out of the 22 attorneys who had signed up to attend were Armenian. Later, one of the speakers (a clerk in one of the courts) was discussing divorce cases and scheduling and she read off the names of the five judges.... the second one was Sahagian.

Finally, on my way home, I was reading the Metro... and for those who don't know... the metro always has a question of the day which they ask three people - the middle person's picture is usually the bigger one with their answer in bold. The "middle" answered in today's paper was Melkonian.

I know. I'm having an odd armo-dar day. But you forget folks... I'm not in Glendale anymore. We don't have three (oh wait, now two) Ian/Yan councilmen... and we don't have 80,000 armos living within 5 miles of each other. So, I get excited over things like this.

Or maybe I just need a life.

Anyway, I promise to return to my blogging. I totally started slacking once classes ended - and we all know why that is.

Bed time now... gnite :)