You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone

I've found a rift in the space-time continuum, and it's in my local smoothie shop.

I should back up. 

On Saturday, June 17th, my fiancé and I went for a walk and stopped in at a fruit and smoothie shop.  The date is important.  I remember it was Saturday, June 17th, because it was the day before Father's Day, and the shop was busy handling orders for fruit basket deliveries for the following day.  In fact, the shop was so busy that they were a bit overwhelmed. The manager came out from the back with a new hire whom she was training, and she walked the woman through the steps of making our smoothies.  The new hire had never made a smoothie before, wasn't a quick learner, and was having trouble figuring out how to follow the directions for the smoothies that are all printed on index cards in a flip book behind the counter.  The manager talked her through which measuring scoop and spoon were which, which cup was a small vs. a kiddie size vs. a medium, how to use the blender, etc. 

We got our smoothies eventually, they were delicious, and time moved on -- four and a half months of time, if you're counting, which I am here.

Then on Friday this week, I posted the following on Facebook:

So when your whole team at work is waiting on the street for one person who's late, and you call to ask for an ETA and they tell you they're just one block away, and then five minutes later you all SEE the person finally one block away, my question is this: Does that person think you're all blind, or did they wake up thinking, "THIS is the day I will warp the space-time continuum"?

My cousin jokingly commented on my post with "If you don't start your day with believing you can warp the space time continuum you certainly won't succeed at it. And, really, are you telling me that everyone doesn't start each day with that thought?"

And another friend added, "There are eddies on the time-space continuum. Possibly a few blocks inserted themselves as the person went along. I noticed that happened often as I was going home--I'd think 'I'm a block away from home' and then, another block would appear out of nowhere and make me a block further away..."

I smiled at their joking comments and went along with my day.

But then today... today I found it.

On my way back from the library, I stopped in at the smoothie shop for the first time in four and a half months.  The woman who was a new hire and being trained last time I was there was behind the counter again.  I ordered a smoothie from the menu over the counter.  She said, "Oh, I don't know how to make that, actually. Let me go get help," and returned with the manager from last time, who immediately smiled upon seeing me and said, "Oh, you were just here the other day!"

I hadn't been there in four and a half months, but I smiled and said, "Well... a while ago," and she replied, "Yeah, yeah I remember you."

And then she proceeded to train the woman, WHO DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE A SMOOTHIE AND WAS A NEW HIRE BEING TRAINED, on how to make a smoothie. The manager talked her through which measuring scoop and spoon were which, which cup was a small vs. a kiddie size vs. a medium, and how to use the blender..... again.

But it was the same woman from four and a half months ago.  She wasn't a new hire.  But she was.  She had been making smoothies for four and a half months now.  But she hadn't.  I had last been there on June 17th.  But the manager said I'd been there "just the other day."

As I walked away, munching on my smoothie (I say munching because the woman being trained never did learn how to use the blender properly, so there were lots of ice chips and almond chunks in my smoothie), I tried to think of an explanation, but I could think of none.  I'm flummoxed.  What has time been like in this shop?  What has the "new" employee been doing every day at work for the last four and a half months, since it clearly hasn't been making smoothies?  Who has come into the shop since June 17th?  Why does time seem to be condensed to only a few days for them when it's been months for me?

Then this evening, I got an alert on my computer that I had a new Google Hangouts message from my brother.  I clicked on the green alert and his new message popped up.  His "new" message is dated from May 5th of this year (a date he confirmed when I asked him about it).  And it's about how he just met someone named Jessica who looks like me, who did dancing, acting, and film production, who lives in Queens (he met this woman in Michigan), and whose mother's maiden name is Pollack.

I have no idea what any of this means.  All I could come away with was this:  I hope when I go back to the smoothie shop in five months, that employee will have learned how to use the blender.