same same but different

in SE asia they have a saying “same same but different”. in fact one of the guesthouses in cambodia even was named that. i think that pretty much summarized today. i got up and all of a sudden was thrown into the same routine that i had faced day in and day out before i left. everything was falling back in it’s place. ugh. no more daily fun for me.

but then in certain ways things were just a bit off. a bit different and because of that everything seemed kinda weird to me. see, my company moved while i was gone to a new shiny 20 story office building. i drove to work as i always do *but* got off two exits earlier. i saw all the same people at work *but* some people had quit and were missing from the picture. i went to mexican food for lunch *but* it was baja fresh instead of unamas. all of these changes were slight and totally tiny yet for some reason they all made me feel a little on edge. i hated the daily routine, but it was even weirder that the routine was still there but not the same i guess.

back before i left, when i still worked in redwood city, i would eat lunch at unamas all the time and the cashier was this chick connie who was always really nice. now i’m working in foster city and drove to baja fresh to get food since it’s closer. on the way there, the jetlag hit me really hard and i walked into the restaurant feeling super sleepy and dazed and walked up… and gave connie my order. huh??! all of a sudden i felt totally confused. where the hell was i? did i come to the right place? was this even happening? am i dreaming? why does nothing make sense? it’s really hard for me to put it into words just what i felt right there. like something was terribly wrong. like i must be totally mistaken. like my sanity wasn’t right, or there was a glitch in the matrix. i dont know why, all of this flooded over me.

of course, the explanation was super mundane. connie used to work in redwood city, and now she works here. nothing bizarre about it. *sigh*. i need more sleep.