You know you live in a small town when...

1...after filling out a P.O. box application form, the postal clerk says, "Oh, so you're moving into Bob's house, eh?" Startling. No where on the form had I written my grandparents names, just their house address. This guy is good, real good.

2...upon introducing myself to some students studying at a table in the special education room where I am now working, one of them says, "Are you related to Steve, the realtor?" I replied that he was my dad, and he continues with, "I need to talk to him!" Okay, that was a little too much. Here is a 17 year old student who evidently is interested in fixing up old houses, and wants some purchasing advise from my father. Weird.

3...as I was bending down to pick up a 4o lb bag of dog food that I had just paid for at the Wal-Mart register, I hear, "Hey, ex!" What? I turn and look, and there is my ex-neighbor, Dave, shouting out a friendly greeting. I was a little taken aback, being that the term 'ex' could be associated with just about anything, but most commonly, ex-spouses. He quickly realized that yelling out the word 'ex', in the middle of Wal-Mart, was a bit awkward and immediately corrected it with "ex-neighbor", as I looked up to see who was addressing me. Hilarious!

4...you get mistaken for your brother's wife. Wait till you hear this...I was called to substitute teacher in one of the local elementary schools for gym class. I arrived and was directed by the secretary to call the gym teacher to get the lessons for the day. When I called her (she happens to be my old elementary gym teacher), I first gave her my name and then asked her what we were going to be doing for the day. She immediately starts with, "So, are you Evan's, Leslie?" I started to answer yes, because I had no idea what she was talking about, but then I corrected myself and told her I was Evan's sister and Steve's second daughter. She proceeded with, "I heard Evan married a Leslie, so you are his wife?" Um, no. I'm his sister, Evan actually married an Emily. There are two Emilys in the family, not two Leslies. Her next remark continued to confuse me, "Oh, so who are you?" I couldn't think of who I was, besides Evan's sister and Steve's second daughter. So I just repeated that statement. The connection must have clicked after that, because she immediately exclaimed, "Oh, are you the hiker?" Whew, we got that cleared up, I guess. I'm 'the hiker', here in Rochester, evidently. Good to know.