sartorial coincident

on my way into work this afternoon i boarded the train wearing a blue, striped, button-down shirt and green, cotton pants. the car i entered was crowded so i walked into another and took a seat. as i looked around i noticed that there were three people sitting in front of me with almost the same shirt that i was wearing. funny coincidence. i looked around a bit more and noticed that the car was almost full of people not only wearing a similar shirt to mine but the same type and color of pants, too!

as we entered each station some of them would get up to leave, and meet the eyes of their fellow workers and nod their heads as they left – several people met my eye only to give me a puzzled look when they realized that they didn’t recognize my face.

when i got up to leave i took another look and ended up making eye contact and nodding at a bunch of different people who seemed as puzzled as i was about this trivial but unusual event.

i’m writing this just before i start teaching and the students are filing in so that’s it for now.