"Tuesdays at Traders!"

... is what Kato Kaelin suggested we call it, our new weekly meetup at Trader Joe's. At 5 in the evening, to be specific.

Here's how it happened:

I was in Trader Joe's this evening, after my tour shift, really only looking for pears, but having already perused the whole store and visited the friend at demo. While in the produce section, I noticed Kato standing at the cereals, and I remembered the last time* I ran into him at TJ's, so I approached him again.

"Kato!" (I said, as if we were best buds from way back - HA!)
He turned, smiled, and greeted me warmly (as if we were best buds from way back). I told him that the last time* I'd seen him at TJ's we'd had a lovely "don't I know you?" conversation at checkout, and that my husband and his (Kato's) girlfriend had both stood by mortified that an absolute stranger would walk up, knowing that she "knew" this guy, but honestly, in that moment, not knowing who "this guy" was.
He laughed, said he didn't remember that incident (because seriously, why would he?), but pressing me for a description of the girlfriend, because he was fairly certain it wouldn't be the lady he's seeing these days. The description I gave sorta matched a woman he'd been involved with years ago, but that would actually make sense, in that I've only been back in LA a short while now, in the grand scheme of things.
Then he went on to ask if my husband was around this evening. He said "I'll go down the aisle he's on, and ask if he's seen emelle anywhere." (I was wearing my nametag on the outside of my jacket, having come straight from work.) One of the crew members walked up and handed me back my reusable bag that I had brought recyclables in, and Kato said, "People walk up and hand you stuff at TJ's! Cool!"
I told him that Stephen was working tonight; we spoke briefly about my job at Warner Bros.; I attempted to gracefully depart and allow him to continue with his shopping. I said something to the effect of "anyway, when I saw you tonight I had to clear up the last time," to which he presented his fist and said "Tuesdays at Traders!" somehow knowing that I would "bump" it.
Which I did, of course.

*I thought I had already relayed this story, but I couldn't find the blog post where I mentioned him by name, and in re-reading old posts, I discovered I'm only approaching my second anniversary of blogging! Who has a weirder life than I do? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Have a weird life, kids. See you on Tuesdays. At Traders. :)