So I was minding my own business, walking up the stairs to the office, when the door to the second floor was flung open, leaving me face to face with the screenprinted image of a country music hick, er, singer. "Do you know who this is?" the shirt wearer asked. He was an older gentleman I'd passed in the hall before a few hundred times. "Uh...Travis Tritt? Dwight Yoakum?" I guessed, because those are funny names to say. "No, it's Alan Jackson!" "Oh, the Ford Country guy," I said, remembering only because I am very suseptible to remembering ad campaigns, even bad ones. I was walking to my desk, thinking this little conversation was over.

But such was not the case; The fellow seemed keen on loaning me his Alan Jackson CD. "That's really okay, I'm not one for country music," I said, trying to extract myself. "No, there's one song about September 11, it's very touching." And sure enough, 10 minutes later, the guy tracked me down and handed me the CD. "Thank you," I said, not really meaning it. Then he came back, another 10 minutes later. "I just realized I don't know your name," he said, extending his hand for a handshake. So we introduced ourselves to each other; he said he would bring me another Alan Jackson CD with the song "I'm In Love With You and I Don't Even Know Your Name." "Uh, OK.." I said, feeling a bit uneasy.

Great, I'm being office-stalked. Just what I needed. He caught me at the copier later. "Say, I started to tell you this but I could see you were talking with Chuck." (Thank you, Uncle Chuckie!) "My sister's married name is the same as your last name." I won't bore you with the details, suffice it to say we figured out that we were not related. "Yeah, it's really funny that everyone with the same last name isn't related," I said, wondering if subtle sarcasm would throw a wet blanket on the conversation. It didn't, but the sarcasm gave me a warm inner glow. I suppose next time I can try hiding in the ladies' room for eight hours if the stalking gets too bad.

By the way - Alan Jackson sucks, especially that stupid September 11 song.