tonight, while i was talking to the TTHM (yes, i talked to the TTHM for the first time since the westerberg shows in November), i told him about the HUG.

“why did he hug you?” he asked.
“i have no idea,” i said.
“maybe he recognized you as the only person who’s read all his books.”
“no,” i said. “sister #2 and the stink were there and they have read a lot of his books.”

and now after pondering THE HUG for a few days, i’ve come up with two theories on why Douglas Coupland insisted on putting his arms around me. while sister #2 is pretty convinced that i’m having an illicit affair with him, sadly that isn’t the case.

here are my theories:

1. he saw me standing there in line. noticed me in my 6’5″ messy red-haired frumpiness, me uncomfortable in my own skin, staring out behind my eyes looking big and lost and afraid and recognized his own lonely, frumpy character Liz Dunn. perhaps he saw me as the very embodiment of the character he thought he invented out of his own head. and well if you see one of your characters in real life, you have to touch them.

2. he saw me standing there in line, big and afraid and he saw behind my glasses and recognized a lonely, kindred spirit of sorts. perhaps he could smell the taint of loneliness that seems to infect the air around me. maybe he could tell that i’m painfully lonely, just like him.

i like theory 2 best. i like it because you could tell how uncomfortable he was reading about Liz Dunn, reading from this book about loneliness. he talked about being lonely when we saw him in 2003 at the ruminator and he said how saying “i’m lonely” to the people in your life is the surest and easiest way to make them uncomfortable. and i like to think that he picked up on it and had to hug me because he got it.

at least that’s what i’m telling myself.