2010: pj clarke's

I was the first customer to sit at the bar today at PJ Clarke’s on the Upper East Side. I arrived early because I was looking forward to getting a bacon cheeseburger with gravy fries for lunch (not a lot of places in the city offer this basic combo). It’s the lunch meal I ate almost every day in Montclair NJ, while I was in high school.

Suddenly a guy walks in and sits on a stool at the bar, directly across from me. So I am forced to stare at him the entire time I’m there (he’s the only other guy at the bar).

While I'm waiting for my food to come out, I ponder those high school years and the amazing bacon cheeseburger and gravy fries from Ray's in Montclair. I'm always trying to find a place that gets close to that level of taste bud satisfaction. RIP Ray.

After a few minutes, the guy sitting across from me suddenly says to the bartender, who he seems to know: “hey, I was down in Montclair the other day and they had a great new restaurant blah blah blah”.

Clearly this “person” had access to my thoughts and then made sure to say something that I would hear because I literally just thought about Montclair. This is an excellent example of what I go through on a regular basis and was one of the first moments, in this hell I've been living in over the last 9+ years, that I REALLY knew it was happening.

The guy could have talked about any other town in NY or NJ or anywhere, but he just happened to mention Montclair NJ? It was on purpose and incidents like this are why I currently use earbuds playing white noise when I’m out in public. I don’t want to hear the code/on purpose commentary about what I’m thinking.

(Even though this entry does not provide any proof, other than a recollection of the account, I’ve included it because it was such an important moment.)