I got a phone call from my ex-boyfriend today. We’re still close friends years after the fact, and talk often, so this wasn’t out of the ordinary. But part of the reason he called was to ask
Ex: “By the way, did you know that you’re in the 2008 Edition of Newsweek’s college edition?”
Me: “Ha, you saw that, huh?” [In a past life, I was a student blogger for the MIT Admissions website. MIT was the first school to have such a program, so I occasionally got interview requests from educationally-themed news sources looking to write a feature about it.]
Ex: “Yeah, I was waiting for the shower to heat up and just grabbed a random magazine that was in the bathroom, opened to an article that looked interesting, and saw your name. I was like ‘Holy shit I dated that girl!’ ”
Me: “Oh, so you enjoy living vicariously through me? You can tell people, ‘Hey, check out Newsweek, page 50. Yeah, I dated her.’”
Ex: “Well, it’s not as cool as your ex being in Maxim or anything, but yeah, sorta.”
Me: “Sorry, next time I’ll aim for a racier publication, for your sake.”
The joys of being very, very slightly famous.