Chapter XI: A Glitch in the Matrix

Whenever I make an allusion, either in writing, or aloud, I always fear that the people on the recieving end will be too stupid to understand it, and will, in turn, think I am stupid for saying something seemingly weird (if you don't get the allusion).

Most people are probably smart enough to understand all my allusions, but then I fear that the person I'm talking/writing to will maybe think I made the allusion unintentionally, because he thinks I'm stupid.

In any case, immediately following the allusion with an explication of it remedies both of these situations. On one hand, I'm assured that the person I'm talking to will realize an allusion was made, and on the other, he will be assured I made it on purpose.

For example, the title of this blog used to be "The Light Fan Tastic". And beneath the title, I scribbled something about how it was an allusion to The Glass Menagerie, but also a play on my last name.

I realize I haven''t explicated the new title "My Life is a Refrigerator Full of Condiments But No Real Food" (that was for reference, if I ever change the title again), which is also an allusion, to Fight Club. But I guess I just did.

And so with that introduction, we can proceed.

The title of this chapter is an allusion to something Trinity said in The Matrix, regarding the phenomenon of deja vu. However, this entry is not about The Matrix, nor about deja vu, nor even about allusions.

It's about something wierd that happened tonight in the parking lot of the Vons supermarket in San Luis Obispo. Quinn and I had just purchased some stuff with a $25 gift card he had (yes, a gift card for Vons) and we walked to his car, which is one of about only four left in the parking lot. I get to the front passenger side and open the door, and as I am about to get in, he looks over and says, "Um, this isn't my car."

He was right, of course, but that's where the strangeness begins. There were only four cars left in the parking lot, and parked next to Quinn's happened to be one that was nearly identical to his. He has a Volkwagen Jetta; the other car was a Volkwagen Jetta. His car is painted dark green; the other car was the exact same shade of dark green. And of course, there was the mystery as to why he had been able to unlock that car. I mean, how could it not be his car if he unlocked the doors? In fact, the actual owner had, for some reason, left them unlocked.

Either she (we were able to infer the owner's gender based on her vehicle's contents) was very forgetful, or didn't feel anyone would try to steal an ugly green Jetta. And she would have been right of course--the only reason anyone would touch her car is if they mistook it for a different car, which is exactly what happened .

It was a bizarre experience that disoriented me for a moment, not unlike deja vu might do. And that is why I allude to it in the title. See? Everything I say has a purpose, you just have to wait and see.

In an amusing coda, after Quinn parked back at Cal Poly and we had walked about two hundred feet up the hill...he realized he had forgotten to lock the car.