I am wheeling on Mulberry Street to go back to my apartment. It is another beautiful fall day in New York. There is a woman with a dog talking to another woman. As I pass by her, she asks me: “Where’s your dog?”
“I don’t have a dog.”
“Ah sorry, I thought you were that girl with a dog.”
…
Two weeks later
I get on the subway at Jay Street Metrotech Station in Brooklyn.
“Do you go to X (can’t remember the name) school?” asks me a man who just got on the train too.
“No.”
“Oh ok. I work there. I work with people like you.”
“…”
“A lot of people don’t like to work with people like you but I like it.”
“…”
“Do you go to school?”
“Yes.”
“Where do you go to school?”
“I am doing a PhD.”
“Oh! You are a big girl!”
I have two options. To give him an introductory lecture on disability or to look pissed and say nothing. I choose the second option.
…
Two weeks later
I enter a NYU building where I am going to attend a talk. I stop near the entrance to take off my mittens.
A woman asks me:
“Were you at the conference at University of San Diego?”
“No,” I reply.
“I thought it was you. Sorry.”
This actually happens.
So many twins that I have never met.