She was headed out of the locker room, then suddenly turned around and made a beeline for me. “See, I dropped my earring. My diamond, you see?!? I didn’t even know it had fallen out of my ear til I felt the back just drop. And I searched and searched and searched. I looked all up and down this floor. Every single tile. Til I finally found it. And now I’m all late for work but I was not leaving this locker room til I found my earring. Okay, see you later.”

The entire time this woman spoke to me, I wondered, “What is the lesson to be learned here? I don’t know this woman. Am I missing an earring? Should I start looking tile by tile? Is she accusing me of taking her earring? We were wearing similar styles.” But no, she just wanted to talk. To someone. To me.

My gym buddy, R, turned to me as the woman exited. “Do you know her?”

“No,” I replied. “Never seen her before in my life. Random people always come up to me and talk, though. Don’t know why.”

“Please don’t take this the wrong way,” she began.

Uh oh. “Okay – go ahead.”

“Well, what muppet do you think you most resemble?”

Hmm. Never really given that much thought. When I didn’t answer she continued. “I think you’re most like Big Bird.”

I burst out laughing. “I’m not offended, but I’m curious. Why? Because I have a big nose?”

Now it was her turn to laugh. “No. Because you’re so friendly. People always want to talk to you. Just like Big Bird.”