01/15/03’s illustrious band:

Familiar Stranger

Brought to you by Kim Husband. Not me -- the other one.

I checked my Hotmail this morning and was surprised to find a message from Kim Husband. I figured it was spam from one of those e-mail programs that cleverly insert the user's own name into the subject or sender line, so I almost deleted it. But I decided to click it on the off chance it wasn't spam.

Sure enough, it appears to be a legitimate message from someone who has the same name I do. She (I think it's she, anyway) lives in Nashville. She got bored while surfing furniture websites and typed her own name into Google, and some link to me came up. So she got in touch just to let me know there are two of us out there.

Wild! I've known there were a couple other Husband families in the U.S., but someone with my same first name, too? I'm sure a Chris Smith or a Pat Johnson wouldn't get worked up over such a coincidence, but I'm intrigued by it. I responded right away. I hope I hear back soon. Maybe I’ll get a pen pal out of the deal.

It’s been suggested that this other Kim Husband may be my evil twin from another dimension. I have to admit, the thought had already crossed my Trekkie mind. Because Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock once encountered their own evil twins from a parallel universe, it was pretty scary. Especially the part about Spock’s counterpart having a goatee. I don’t think the world is ready for a bearded me. I know my little corner of it ain’t.

In other news, you’re probably asking yourself why I’m not out in the bloodmobile right now giving the gift of life as I have done many times before. Well, it’s because today I would also be giving the gift of a cold virus, and for some reason the American Red Cross doesn’t want any. Bummer, yeah, but I’d hate to make anyone else sick. It does tick me off, though, that I should get one of the two colds I’m likely to contract this year right when the bloodmobile makes one of its two annual visits to my workplace. What are the odds? Even a hefty dose of wasabi at lunch yesterday wasn’t enough to kill all the little viral invaders, although I can assure you that my sinuses are clean as a whistle. I think my hair has a little extra curl to it, too.