Welcome to Smalltown.

There are a number of things that make living in--let alone teaching in--this small town incredibly annoying.

First of all, Hutchinson is the perfect size for disaster. It's just large enough that it has its own major buildings. A crappy, old-people mall, a Target, an Applebee's, a hospital.

When I lived in Albertville, I never ran into people. In order to go get a decent amount of groceries, or laundry soap, people had to leave. Go to Rogers or Monticello. There was no doctor's office there. (There is now, but there wasn't before.) People in Albertville during the late 90s, early 00s didn't even shop at the Outlet Mall. They didn't really get it. I mean, I worked at Subway for two years, and very rarely a teacher came in. Albertville was small enough that nobody lived there. They travelled in from bigger towns nearby.

But not Hutch. I can't go to Target without seeing three kids. One working there, two shopping. I can't go to Cashwise without running into a student working in the bakery (careful that I'm buying alchol mixers, they can't see that) or a student in the frozen foods section. I've seen students at the movie store, Shopko, Wal-Mart, Applebee's, Econo Foods. I've seen students or other teachers everywhere I've gone in this town. Hutchinson is an island. Nobody travels anywhere else to get shopping done. Everything is here, in this small town, and this creates a problem.

And today. Today I had a doctor's appointment. At the OB/GYN. I got there, and in the waiting room, another teacher at school--the computer lady--sat in the chair and waved at me. Apparently, we were getting our vaginas checked out on the same day. And then the nurse who helped me, well of course she asked me what I do, so I had to tell her that I teach at the high school. And she said, I think you had my son as a student! And she said his name, and luckily I hadn't--the other new teacher had.

And then, as I was leaving, walking out of the backroom at the vag doctor, a current student's name was being called. God. So, we had to pass each other, walk right by each other. And I said, almost defeated, hey Megan, and she responded, equally defeated by this annoying coincidence: hey.