Crazy girls in coffee shops

Today, I awoke to a voice mail from my friend Fiona. She was in Durham for the day and wanted to see me. You see, Fiona was a co-worker at the infamous “residential mental health facility” that I worked for a year back in ’04-’05, so it has been a while since I have seen her. Color me excited!

So, we arrange to meet at a coffee shop in Durham. As I’m enjoying my lemonade and ham & cheese sandwich, I overhear a strange girl talk about how she can’t eat raisins and grapes in the same day because they’re essentially the same fruit. I chalk her up to being one of those people with particularly odd dietary habits that they think will keep their body in balance or whatever, and continue with my Fiona time.

Then, Fiona says that the strange girl and her friend just said “Virgil” and “CooperRiis.” You see, Virgil is the Executive Director of CooperRiis, so apparently this random strange girl knows some info about the “mental health facility.” I figure there’s no way that such a random coincidence could occur, and I tell Fiona that she must be mistaken. Then, I hear the strange girl and her friend say even more CooperRiis-specific words, and I am officially convinced.

How peculiar. One current and one former employee of CooperRiis met for lunch in Durham (four hours away from The ‘Riis) and they are sitting next to two girls talking about the place. Wow.

At this point, the strange girl jolts up, spins around, acts a little spastic, and runs off somewhere in the shop. After some discussion as to if we should say anything to these girls, Fiona and I take Strange Girl's abrupt exit as an opportunity to introduce Fiona and myself to Strange Girl’s friend (hereafter known as “not-strange girl”). Not-strange girl seems as generally shocked at the coincidence. Then, Strange Girl comes back, and seems generally uneasy about the coincidence.

But Fiona and I express loving-kindness, magnanimity, and compassion to Strange Girl, and get her to talk about her CooperRiis experience: how she’s been a visit to The ‘Riis, how her parents want her to go there, how she doesn’t think she needs therapy or mental assistance, etc.

So, as the conversation continued, Strange Girl randomly flipped out about her shoelace, didn’t want to shake any of our hands because of germs, says that she wants to be an astronaut but hasn’t gone to astronautics school, asked to have Fiona’s blueberry pie, and other such strange things. Based on her behavior, I personally (and internally) diagnosed her as Paranoid Schizophrenic, OCD, and maybe a little Manic.

But hold on, we find out that Not-strange Girl went to same college as Fiona! In fact, Not-strange Girl knows Fiona’s sister! Oh, what the…Fiona and Not-Strange Girl then recall that they were roommates! Then, Strange Girl pipes in, “hey [not-strange girl], didn’t I know your roommate? Then the light bulbs go off over Fiona’s and Strange Girl’s heads, as they now remember each other. My mind is blown. Blown. And then, they say, in unison…


"APRIL FOOLS!"

What can I say, they got me.

p.s. Strange Girl is not crazy (or strange), but she is one fine actor.