Two weeks. Two weeks from today, Penny will be a whole year old.

If you think I'm not going to do a glurge-y year-in-review with lots of pictures, you can just think again.

Coincidence abounds. One of the women at my gym showed up yesterday without her usual buddy, so I chatted with her a little.

Turns out that her name is the same as my mother-in-law's.

Turns out that her grandson will be turning 6 the same day Penny is turning 1.

Turns out that she works right around the corner from me.

Turns out that we both hate the same bizarre contraption at the gym.

Okay, that last one isn't such a coincidence. But I thought the first couple were kind of neat.

When this woman and her buddy first showed up, I swear to god I thought they were a lesbian couple. My first impressions of people are almost always dead wrong. I can't tell you how many people I've thought were a little creepy who eventually became great friends, or how many people I've thought were really nice who showed up later as total assholes.

Or people I thought were really smart, who turned out to just be parroting or making up things in order to sound smart. Or people I thought were kind of dumb who simply had trouble explaining themselves.

People that I thought would sympathize with my opinions reveal themselves as Bible-thumping nutjobs. I've braced myself for outrage, only to stumble in a sudden rush of agreement.

This is one reason that I'm so quiet around people I don't know well: I can't trust my instincts, and I'm waiting to find out exactly how they've failed me before I stick my foot in my mouth.

--Liz