If you haven’t read the fiction post bbelow, it’s one of my best, I think. So is the one on the sidebar. Yes I shamelessly self promote. If this post doesn’t read well, blame it on the people rebuilding the new penthouse next door. I’m exhausted. Oh revenge fantasises are so sweet.
Two or three weeks ago I read that your chances of meeting people you know, on the street, are slimmest in Manhattan. Excluding neighbors, I have since run into five people I know.
Last night I was in Fairway. There was a huge firetruck outside. We have many fire houses in the hood, and they all shop there. Fairway has gourmet produce at great prices for Manhattan. Firemen are of course known for their cooking. For some reason I began to laugh when they talked about the virtues of sun dried tomatoes. I don’t like them as they’re salty.
But I did save Lucia’s life when she choked on one. Well, I said:
“Lucia did you know my biggest fear in life is somebody choking in my presence?”
She laughed so much it came up, and still thinks I tried to kill her with my non Heimlich maneuver. Thought my way was much more efficient.
Some fireman came behind me in line. The basket no shopping cart, twelve items or less line, snakes around a good part of the store but is very efficient.
I asked if they wanted to go ahead of me, because I do sometimes tear up when I see them, or pass a firehouse and see all the plaques honoring lost firemen. The firemen said no, they would wait.
Fortunately the line manager called them. There were about four people ahead of me.
They were talking and laughing and didn’t hear that. I was turning around to tell them when I heard my name called.
It was Lucia. I have lived in the hood for almost a decade; she has for 21 years, and we have never run into each other before. She wouldn’t have turned around if the firemen hadn’t been called, and I wouldn’t have noticed her, though she is stunning 🙂 We took this as a good sign.
in a related/unrelated note, i never ran into anyone I knew in Los Angeles…honest!
Firemen always bring around good things, for sure! What is it about them?
🙂
Mystery
http://www.shotinthedarkmysteries.com
Madison isn’t a big city by anyone’s stretch of the imagination except my own, and I never run into anyone I know.
This was a cute story though 🙂 I like random moments in time.
Never been to Fairway! Gotta fix that…
Good signs are simply…well good.
I just rolled into MD after an exhausting day and was going to fall into sleep but can’t help trolling around some.
discount all misspellings
I tagged you over at my blog, the reason is…I want to know MORE about you, lol. 🙂
I love the rescuing Lucia story.
Maybe the survey people meant the chances of your running into someone THEY know.
I do love such happy coincidences… what do ” the experts” know with their statistics I ask?
I once ran into Rocco, this guy I went to Spanish school in Spain with and, who years later, appeared in my American school in Spain, in San Francisco, over a decade after my having moved away from Spain and left the American school…
And I once met this Iranian guy in LA who was visiting my friend from Tehran and who was dying of cancer. He died shortly thereafter and a year later, in Spain, I met a half-Iranian girl in the town of Málaga who was friends with him when she lived in Tehran! And Tehran has as many inhabitants as New York (if not more… cannot remember the stats!)… you never know! These are the things that make life exciting… as well as bittersweet, you know?
i guess laughter is the best medicine, eh? that was a grand story about happy coincidences. i’m guessing you and your friend cross paths far more often than you think — such is our nature: we rarely see the things and/or people we’re not looking for. (in my head this makes sense)
that said, i was looking for a great post to read, and here it is! thanks! 🙂 xox
I’ve lived in small towns for the last couple of decades and I always know people where ever I go. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. =)