This is how small the world is.

So I was about an hour early for an audition at The Onion (so excited about that) on Tuesday, so I picked up the script and went to a nearby Starbucks in Soho to study it. The place was mobbed, no seats to be had. I walked around for a minute and finally asked a guy if I could share his table. We sat in silence for about five minutes while we consumed our beverages, me waiting for him to leave before I pulled out my script, when his phone rang. Afterwards, he made a small-talk comment about cell phones, something about picking up his daughter and going to Grand Central.

He observed that no one seemed to be working that day, and asked if I was (because I was wearing a suit), to which I laughed, "No, I'm an actress," and told him I was auditioning for a web-thing nearby. When he asked if I did that a lot, I told him I was primarily a stage actress, and that this was a rarity. I told him the reason no one appeared to be working because of Spring Break, and that Grand Central would be mobbed as well; we commiserated about having to wade through tourists to get to our trains, as both of us live in Westchester County, and have to take the Metro North home.

He said he had just moved to Ossining, but that for the last 17 years he lived in Cincinnati.

When I told him, "Oh, really? I was a co-founder of the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival!" He said, "Wait a minute. We've met. I photographed you!"

It was Craig Ruttle, who took the picture above for Jackie Demaline's feature article back in 2003...

Small, small world indeed.

And to think that if I'd gone to the other Starbucks down the street, we never would have seen each other...

Welcome to New York, Craig!
Big hugs,
Marni