the first of many

at work, two co-workers talking about music. one says "remember that roberta flack song?" the conversation went somewhere else from there.

later, while scouring yet another archive of albums listed by year (for that particular project that has been consuming the household), roberta flack's name leaps out at me.

maybe that's part of the problem: clearly there was no connection, but hearing the name and seeing the same name later resonated more than they should have done.

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[also, and this is quite literally for thee practicing paranoiac files:

today, a patient from the upstairs clinic comes to the front desk and asks about the green identification card he was given to take to the lab. he tells me that the identification card had both his first and last name, and he would like just the initial of his first name printed rather than the whole name.

when i told him that it was our policy to have the entire first name on those cards, he said, "so what am i supposed to do when i hear all of these voices calling out to me by my first name? just tune them out?" he was asking sincerely, because he was hearing people calling him by his name.

i said, "hm, let me find out about that" and then notified the guy manning the mental health desk that one of his patients was needing some help.]