It really is a small world

In the Lower Mainland (that's Vancouver and a bunch of cities surround it to the non-locals), there are over 2 million people. So with so many people, what are the chances that two of your acquaintances knowing each other? Pretty good actually.

I went to my esthetician, M. today for my regular facial. Dave went to our hairdresser, S. for his regular haircut. S lives in North Vancouver, M lives in Downtown Vancouver, and we live in Burnaby.

When I got home, Dave mentioned to me that our S actually knew M. Considering that we don't socialize within the same circles, it's pretty weird that M & S know each other. In an area where there is over 2 million people, you'd think the chances are pretty rare.

Or are they?

When you really think about it, you only hang around certain people and certain places. And if your friends, colleges and acquaintances also hang around similar people and places, you're only ever going to see a certain sub-set of people out of the 2 million.

It has happened to me more times than I can count where so-and-so knows someone I know. Or someone knows about me. (I really get around more often then I realize! Lucky me).

But it's times like this, which makes me feel that Vancouver isn't that big. The degrees of separation is certainly smaller than six. Having lived here all my life, I wouldn't know what it would be like living in a larger city. Would I still see the same sort of pattern that I see here?

(Ok, this was a totally boring post. The only thing that makes it funny was I almost typed out "it's pretty weird that S & M know each other". I wonder how Google will index this page. My blog might end up on some bondage listing or something. Which may make my life a little more interesting. Hmmmm....)