Crazy Crap Item #25: The part where I come face to face with my predecessor

It's widely known that my husband, prior to meeting me, dated nearly every woman he's met. Which makes for a lot of ex-girlfriends floating around. In fact, our bridal party included no fewer than one ex-girlfriend and one passionate high school crush.

So I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised to discover yet another link in the chain. Eamon and I were out with my dear friend, Mr. Christopher Piatt (aka Sweet Pea), the theater editor at Time Out Chicago. He was taking us as his guests to see the new musical, Was, which was being staged at Northwestern University. (A godawful affair, but no more on that here.) As we we stroll to the theater, Eamon mentions that he once dated an actress who, to the best of his knowledge, is still in Chicago. He mentions her name. Stacey Magerkurth.

And Sweet Pea stops dead in his tracks.

Of course he knows Stacey. And oddly enough, didn't meet her as part of the Chicago theater scene, as one would expect. Instead, they have some convoluted, Kansas-based friendship that goes back years. And we are all agog at the smallness of the world.

So subsequently, I receive an Evite from Sweet Pea for his annual Xmas shindig, and lo and behold, there's Stacey in the "Yes" column. Eamon, sadly, can't attend.

I arrive at said party, and shortly thereafter, a very friendly woman and her date show up. And Sweet Pea nonchalantly introduces "Stacey." And I shriek, "This is Stacey!" Thankfully, she figures out why I'm shrieking, and she shrieks. And then we hug. And then we shriek some more. Then we talk about how Eamon tends to cancel plans, and how FastWeb (Eamon's former place of employ, the place, in fact, where he and I met) killed their relationship.

Later, as we chat, it comes up that she and Eamon broke up in Sept. 1998. Inwardly, I breathe a sigh of relief. Eamon and I started dating in November of 1998. Phew.