Recognized in the street

If you follow my twitter stream you probably saw this entry from a few weeks ago:

A guy from the conference just recognized me on the street and asked for a picture with me.

That might not seem like much if you don't know the circumstances around this. First the particular street was Fifth Avenue in New York City. I was on my way to the Apple Store there after GTAC had ended. I was surprised that someone I didn't know would recognize me randomly on a street in New York City, but I wrote it off since I was right outside an Apple Store (where else is a geek supposed to go?).

Well, it happened again last night here in London. I was walking down a street in Kensington when I heard a guy yell out, "Mr. Hutchison". It turned out to be someone else who had attended the conference. Sadly I didn't remember his face, and was a little shocked when he called out my name.

This time I had the added bonus of being with Jenna when it happened, so she now belives that I'm not crazy.

I'm flattered that people both remember and recognize me in the street, but it is a bit disconcerting. First, I don't think of the testing community as that pervasive, and second when I'm walking down a street in London or New York, I feel totally anonymous.

While it seems that the anonymity that I feel is possibly fictitious, it's still a little jarring to have that fiction destroyed regularly. It also gives me the smallest insight into what a celebrity must feel.

I'm not sure that I would ever want to have this become a regular thing, but I do have to admit that it gives me a little secret thrill every time it happens. Maybe that is the nature of the driving force behind a person's drive for notoriety and celebrity.