It's (always) a small world

In my (relatively) short life, I've been to lots of places and run into lots of people.  I saw a high school classmate when I was on a school trip in the Roman Forum, and ran into another friend at a cafe in Venice.  My favorite small world moment is probably walking across a big street in a crosswalk in Hong Kong with about 100 other people and bumping into a friend walking the other direction.  I've unexpectedly stood face to face with a grade school classmate on the L in Chicago, almost 900 miles from where we both grew up.
          In spite of these stories, I still go a little crazy when I run into people at very normal places like the grocery store.  I've lived in Chicago for a little over 6 years now, which should technically make me feel like an actual resident of the city, but it's only when I run into people while doing everyday errands that I feel like "I really live here!"  So I had a funny surprise yesterday while waiting in line at the post office to mail my mom her birthday package (perhaps more on that tomorrow or a later day).  Standing 2 people behind me (until I let the in-between people cut me in line, that is) was a guy who I took my drawing class with last fall.  He was pretty much the only student, other than me, who was taking it very seriously and showing up each week.

          His name is Josh Garber and he is a sculptor.  I urge you to check out his website - if you live in the midwest you may have even seen some of his sculptures and not even known it.  The one that I have seen is outside the CTA brown line Kimball L stop (the pic to the right is him, at the L stop - thanks google).  Since I had known him for probably a month before I decided to stalk him online and find his work, I was actually very surprised by what his artwork looked like.  I think of him as kind of a quiet, sweet man, yet his drawings in class were always rather dark and disturbed (mostly because I think he was frustrated by the medium).  Finding these 2 aspects of his personality already to be a kind of dichotomy, seeing his sculptures confused me even more.  But they're definitely very cool.
          Anyway, the very first thing he said to me was "you must be hearing back from schools soon" because he was always asking about my applying to architecture programs.  When I finally got a chance to ask him what he's up to, he said he is working on a piece for the Ritz Carlton on Michigan Ave., among other things.  Well that sounds like it's way more interesting than my stuff; I can't believe he let me talk for so long about my piddly applications.  Let's all keep our eyes peeled for Josh Garber, both in sculpture form, and at our local post offices.