Serendipity
ACT ONE
Two days ago at work, I was chatting with a fellow post-doc about Christmas break. She’s staying in town, and we talked about how nice that can be. I told her about how, when I lived in Bloomington, Hamilton (my ex) and I loved staying in town over break. Since it was a college town, noone was around. We stayed in our jammies, watched movies, ate tons of foods, played with the cats, and actually taped ourselves in to block the draft around the front door and mentally shut out the world.
"You lived in Bloomington? I thought you went to school in Memphis."
"Nope. That was just my pre-doc year. Before that, I was in Bloomington for 7 years."
"I know IU is a big school, but do you happen to know…?"
And then she asked me if I happened to know one of my closest and most favorite friends from my Bloomington years.
ACT TWO
I left after work that same day and headed to Whole Foods to get my Christmas groceries. After arriving home, I logged on to Tribe, and a woman I’ve known online for a few years has sent me a message:
"Were you shopping at Whole Foods in Newton Centre today?"
"Why yes I was. I didn’t even remember that you lived in Boston!"
ACT THREE
Last night, I joined the JP Christmas Caroling Mob at Stonybrook Station. I ran into a woman I met at the JP Open Studios. I had taken a picture of a toddler with her that day, and I asked her if she’d like me to e-mail the picture to her. She became emotional and said that she very much would. She was a foster mother, and this was her last day with the child."
I ran into her again, and she was once again very grateful I’d taken the picture. The child was back with the family and doing well.
She was there last night, and when we started to sing, she stood next to me. "You have a very good voice," I said… and I meant it. I’m a snob and don’t say that much.
"In my former life, I was an opera singer."
"Me, too," I replied. And I meant it!
She asked me where I went to school, and I said Oberlin and New England Conservatory. She’d been at NEC at the same time I was, although she was getting a Bachelor’s while I was getting a Master’s… you know, before I fled. She even knew my nutty teacher, the expert in training coloraturas, and she knew her quirks.
Now this woman works in child welfare in the neighborhood in which I now live. Very similar paths.
We’re going for a drink some time.
ACT FOUR
After the Caroling Mob, we ended up at Spontaneous Celebrations for cocoa. There was a guy I’d been noticing all night. I approached him.
"You look so familiar to me."
"Where do you live?" he asked.
"Here in JP."
"Me, too. That’s probably it."
"Maybe. What college did you go to?"
Turns out he went to Oberlin, too, only not when I did. He is about 7-8 years younger. And he was in Bloomington, too. He performed with a man I knew there. I might have seen that.
But here’s the kicker, this man lives at the same tiny intersection as me… DIRECTLY across the street.
Yeah, that’s probably it!
