Thinking of me?

[mrissa]

I keep a file entitled "thoughtofme." Whenever a friend or family member or acquaintance e-mails me something because they read it and thought of me, I write down what it was. I figure some of it has to be related somehow, or at least patterns may emerge. I tend to go ages without having anything to add to that file, and then having several all at once.

There have been three so far today: Finnish cheese, a Sampo ballet, and certain delicate masculine concerns in Icelandic sagas. This is more of a pattern than I usually get, really.

My favorite example of this came a few years back, when my friend Ben forgot to expand on his thought process. I got a link to an article about Gila monsters whose owner had died, and they had eaten his corpse. And the e-mail had the link in it, and said, "Thought of you. --Ben." It turns out he had read this article and thought, "They only wanted to grok him in fullness," and had figured that I was one of a small number of his friends who could be counted upon to get the reference. But he didn't say that. He didn't even say the grokking bit. Just the corpse-eating lizards and that he thought of me. I was muchly amused.

What has made people think of you? Were you flattered, or did you wish it hadn't?

Also, nobody ever says to me, "You look so much like so-and-so!" (Unless so-and-so is my mom. Then they say it a lot.) Do you look like everybody's college roommate's first sweetheart? Do you remind people of that one person they used to work with, you know, Wossname? Or do you apparently just look like you?

Comments

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Funny, I was just posting about my name. Which seems somehow related. Well, to me, anyway.

Apparently, I don't resemble many people, but the few I do look like, apparently I look like a lot. (When you see me with my immediate family, you can tell we're related but that's about it.) People who have met me seem to remember me, but every once in a rare while I get someone who is *sure* they've met me in a place I've never been. (Not so much recently though - maybe I look even less like other people as I've aged.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Do you look like a Paula, then?

I can't put my finger on who you look like. I think it's because it's not someone I know well, the wife of a grad student I knew at one of my summer programs or something.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Heh. No. Amusingly enough, I've been told by more than one person (including my mother) that I look like a Melissa.

But when people misremember my name, 99% of the time they say Pamela. Maybe that's just because the outer four letters are the same.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You don't look anything at all like Pamela.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

That's just 'cause you knew a Pamela first.

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

I look like a woman who went camping in the mountains of Argentina with a clerk at OfficeMax (also Argentinian). Apparently this woman is very well-traveled. She may be my doppleganger, because another me-lookalike was spotted in Sweden back in the eighties.

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

I apparently look like the actress who plays Claire on Six Feet Under. While I understand while people might say this, I still have to disagree. Also, my wacky hippy aunt was the first person to tell me this, which is vaguely funny if you're familiar with the show.

[seagrit.livejournal.com]

There's nobody that reminds me of you (or vice versa), but Jamie on "Mythbusters" reminds me of Mark *so* much...

(Do you ever watch that show? If so, I hope Mark takes that as a compliment...)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Looks like him or acts like him or talks like him or what?

I think the guys have watched it a few times, but I never have.

[seagrit.livejournal.com]

Well, the fuzzy beard, geeky intelligence, and sense of humor (I'm not sure if Mark loves blowing things up, but that might fit too) are all similarities. They're both impressively smart guys too.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Gosh, it's too bad for Mark his relatives don't think much of him....

[markgritter.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I didn't see a whole lot of resemblance to Jamie, but I'm certainly more Jamie than Adam. Or than most people on TV.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I wonder what the differences were between the Icelandic concerns about penis size and contemporaray ones. They sound exactly the same to me, just based on that article. I can easily imagine a modern man saying defensively, "But my balls are huge!"

I have run into a couple of doubles, one when I was a girl in India (she was Indian; I'm not) and one from the same village in Lithuania I descend from. I liked the girl, but the woman is one of my least favorite people ever. Apparently many of us who descend from that village look alike. There must have been a lot of inbreeding.

People mostly send me stuff relating to Japan, India, writing, books, or recent topics of discussion. I can't think of anything weird I've gotten offhand.

Oh, once when I invited a bunch of dojo people over to my place to watch The Seven Samurai they all thought Toshiro Mifune's character, Kikuchiyo, reminded them of me. I wasn't as flattered as I might have been, because although he's the lead and the most interesting and likable character, he's also a drunken klutz who walks into walls and can't ride a horse and is only impersonating a samurai.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

Your pictures remind me of someone, but I'm having trouble nailing it down. In person you don't.

I don't get mistaken for people, or compared to famous people, but I do get told that, "I went to highschool with someone who looks just like you!" a lot.

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

Hi, new here. :)

Apparently anything to do with ferrets and unicorns makes people think of me. Gee, I wonder why. :D

Aside from looking like my family (I don't see it, but whatever), the one thing that stands out in my mind right now was when I was working at Wendy's in the drive through. After I handed the mother and daughter their food, they both stared at me for a little while and the mother leaned over as the girl whispered something. Then the mother turned to me and asked if I was an Olympic swimmer.

"Uh, no. Toss me in water and I'm lucky to not drown."

"Oh, you look *just like* the girl we saw on TV last night." (This was, of course during the summer Olympics a few years ago)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Because, naturally, most Olympic swimmers come immediately home from their races and go to Wendy's! Silly, silly people.

And hi, welcome!

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, of course they go back to their icky jobs. ;)

At least "I" won the gold medal that year!

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

You do look *just like* a girl that I knew in college.

But I like you much, much better.

[jmeadows.livejournal.com]

Was she a swimmer? :D

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I have never been told I look like anyone. Since I am adopted I don't look like my family, and I am frankly fascinated by those who do have family resemblences. My four-times-great grandfather looks like my father wearing funny old-fashioned clothes. It's just weird.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We don't have anything like that in my family. Instead, my family will slice people up into bits. I have my Morfar's legs, my Farmor's feet including toes, my Great-Gran's build, my mother and Mormor's eyes, my father's hair...and nobody knows where I got this nose. Off a street vendor, is I think the current answer. Maybe I ordered it on the internet. Hard to say.

It was occasionally a weird moment when I was growing up and somebody would say, "Oh, she has Elaine's toes!" Even weirder when I got a little more grown-up and it was "Emilie's boobs." What every 12-year-old wants to hear is that she has her Great-Gran's boobs.

My relatives are expert in finding small similarities with the relatives they like best. "Your aunt Ruthie used to stand just like that!" or "Your hair has red highlights in that sunlight...you know, my hair was auburn when I was a girl." I don't argue with the aunties about that kind of thing, because it makes them feel good, but when it's something I clearly got from my mom or dad and not a distant relative on the other side of the family, it seems a bit silly.

[scalzi.livejournal.com]

"What has made people think of you? Were you flattered, or did you wish it hadn't?"

Since I wrote two books about people doing dumb things, I get quite a lot of phone calls and e-mails from people saying "I just thought about the stupidest thing, and then I thought of you." To someone who was lacking in context, I imagine that could sound really bad.

Very few things remind me of other people, but I do have people pop up in dreams fairly frequently. I usually consider that my brain's way of telling me I need to call that person and catch up with them. I will also occassionally pop-up in other people's dreams; I think that's kind of fun, especially when I'm doing something that is not particularly characteristic. I like the idea of the dream version of me doing things I wouldn't normally do.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I use dreams of people as the same kind of signal. Sometimes I don't tell the people what the dream was. "I dreamed you died a horrible death in a car accident, and I was really sad. So how are you? Better than that, I hope?"

[mkille.livejournal.com]

As far as I can remember, nobody has told me I look like anybody. Butin college, some people had trouble believing I wasn't Jewish; something about how I looked said "Jewish" to them.

I've been told I *sound* like Fozzy the Bear.

My brother thinks "books" and "libraries" mean me; he emails me NYT and Chronicle of Higher Education articles about slightly crazed people who own or run libraries. My mother thinks of me often and mails me an envelope of clippings every week or so; books, libraries, dinosaurs, ACC basketball, and vegetable gardening predominate. Tina has emailed me something on gnosticism and a joke about Baptist morals (punchline: "Same thing I always tell them--you don't have to drink or smoke to have a great time!").

With my friends, it's more common for us to be in touch infrequently, with a lot of "oh yeah, that reminds me, I heard this and thought of you..." We think of each other--we just hoard it.

[ckd]

I was once told that I looked like Christian Slater. This was back when I still had hair and didn't have a beard, so it was at least vaguely plausible then--now I definitely don't.

Being somewhat socially clueless (which hasn't changed nearly as much as my appearance since that time), I didn't recognize this as the come-on that, in hindsight, it was probably intended as.

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

Apparently, I look *just like* some woman or group of women on the Cass Lake Reservation outstate.

*shakes head and wanders away*

[landofnowhere]

I feel like a long time ago someone told me I looked like someone, and it wasn't my mom or sister. I don't know who.

[blzblack.livejournal.com]

Hey, I told you a number of times that you looked like somebody--chinese american who came to the midwest from california when you left the midwest for california. I was sure I hooked you up with a link to her picture (unavailable now).

I'm told a billion times a day I look or sound like someone or another. I've got those universal bland looks. It doesn't bother me though.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Mr. T, I really think you need to think about the difference between "looks like" and "reminds me of," because if you can't find any features in common between the two people (and yes, you sent me her picture link!), they probably don't actually look alike.

[blzblack.livejournal.com]

You had similar hair styles, similar mouths/smiles, and similar voice patterns.

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

Oh -- and as a kid, I once attended daycamp with a girl who looked so much like me that my mother would get us confused. And once, in Cambridge, I spotted a woman across the room who looked so much like me that it made me uncomfortable to watch her; it was like looking in the mirror and having your reflection act on its own.

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

For many years I looked like everyone's ex-girlfriend. People don't say that anymore (I suspect now I look like someone's mom). In fact, people frequently say that I look just like my kid-- which is particular funny since we have no genes in common at all. But we have the same sense of humor and the same body language, and it tricks people.

[greykev.livejournal.com]

I share a strong family resemblance with my dad and all his brothers and sisters. Also some cousins on that side. (dominent gene package)

My friend Pat and I were frequently mistaken for brohers in gradeschool, but that was probably my natural mimicry & our similar hair color.

A few yars ago a lady at the Shakopee ren fest was dead certain I'd been there earlier in the season, she even argued with me about it. Apparently someone else has as little fashion sense as I to wear a green velvet mushroom cap with a red bloused shirt.

My favorite confusion though is that my former roomate's fiance mistakenly calls him "Kevin" on occasion, and me by his name, though less frequently. She last did this while at his folks' for Thanksgiving. :)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Hair color does more to convince people that other people look alike than it really ought. I just can't understand it. Some people have told me I look "just like" my dad because our hair color is the same. Name me another physical feature we have in common. (Well, okay, we're both pretty pale, but so's my mom.) It's silly.

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

I, as you know, have been told that I look like Tim Curry. I don't get it.

I've been mistaken as being Jeff's brother (and twin, once). I don't see that, either.

I've been told by the gf that Rob Lowe, but only when he was on The West Wing, reminds her of me. Oh, and I was told by someone else the same thing about Joshua Malina (who is, coincidentally, also on TWW).

Stupid un-editable comments

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

But my favorite was when I did not remind you of your [cousin? uncle?] wossisface. Scott.

Re: Stupid un-editable comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

What, when I couldn't come up with the name of my parents' friend, and it was Scott, and you were the only other person in the conversation? That time? Or is a different time your favorite?

Re: Stupid un-editable comments

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

Nope, that was the time.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It's the mouth. It's all in the mouth. With Tim Curry, I mean.

The thing with Jeff, I'm pretty sure, is that Omahans are wimps about height. So if you have two dark-haired guys above 6', they must obviously be related to each other. You and Jeff had different enough styles in high school (and probably do now, though I wouldn't know) that someone unobservant might think it accounted for more of the difference in appearance than it actually does.

I think the gf (fiancee, dork!) has a firm grasp on the difference between "reminded of" and "looks just like."

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

"Fiancee" is such a weird word. And long, too. Much longer than "gf".

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

If you didn't want her to be your fiancee, you shouldn't have proposed, you should have just eloped. Now you're stuck with it.