"Hard to Believe"

At different times, I have come across several books (mostly mysteries or spy stories) where one of the characters says, "I don't believe in coincidence."  I've even heard real people say it!  Well, it's hard for me NOT to believe in coincidence!


Why???  Because coincidence has always seemed a part of my life!  Some times it's just little coincidences like running into a friend at the library or buying the same dress as your worst enemy, or both you and your husband stopping to pick up a pizza for dinner.  Nothing major there, just kind of serendipity that pops up from time to time.  


A more impressive coincidence I keep experiencing is that Ratchlet and I will unknowingly and frequently wear the same colors or similar outfits.  For instance, we'll meet up for lunch and we'll both be wearing Khaki pants with a Hot Pink sweater; or we'll both be wearing dark blue jeans, with a green t-shirt and a denim jacket!  It's ridiculous!  Mother/Daughter outfits are cute when the daughter is 4, but it's silly with two grown women who really have different tastes in fashion!  Nevertheless, it happens a lot.  It's totally unplanned.  We don't discuss it ahead of time.  We never check out the other's outfit before we leave home!  It doesn't happen all the time, just frequently enough to be noticeable by other people we're with!  Sooo, it must just be a coincidence! 


In the past year or so, sometimes M-t-G joins our little coincidence!  If we are wearing pink or purple, we look like multi-generational triplets!  How obnoxious!!  (Of course that's because M-t-G pretty much ONLY wears pinks and purples!  So I guess that doesn't really count!  LOL!)


But these are small things, just kind of funny.  The sort of thing you just shake your head at and say "Again??  I don't believe it!"   And life goes on!


Other times, things happen that I cannot in any way explain except that it's coincidence.  And sometimes they are doozies!


Exhibit A:


As you know we are from Chicago, then we lived for several years about 50 miles south of San Francisco.  I don't know about you, but in our family no matter where you live, if you have guests from out of state, it's pretty standard to take them to "see the sights".  In this part of CA,  one of the must do's is to take your guests to see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay.  Everyone wants to see them.  We took a lot of folks there over time.


On the day in question, we took our 2 friends who were visiting from Chicago.  For a little while Cath and I wandered down to water's edge and walked in the sand and dipped our toes into the Pacific, just to say she did!   The Big Guy and Helen stayed up by the bridge talking.  


Then we went back up to re-join the two of them.  As we got closer we could see that Mikey was talking to some people.  There was a man and a woman whose faces I couldn't see, but they didn't look at all familiar.  I said to Cath something about how Mikey would talk to anyone and often did.  When we got there, the woman was looking right at me and had a huge smile on her face.  I thought maybe it was someone Cath knew, but she looked as puzzled as I.  The guy was still turned away when I walked up to them.  I smiled at the woman, sort of half-heartedly.  I mean, I never knew who Mikey would find next!  We didn't know anyone in San Francisco, so who were these people?


I finally looked at the guy with sort of just a quick glance, still smiling my half-hearted smile.  Then I did the classic double-take, I squealed (bursting eardrums all around, I'm sure), and jumped the guy!  We hugged and laughed for a long time.


Okay, have I built up the anticipation enough?  Are you ready for the big reveal??


It was Dan, one of our oldest and dearest friends, and his wife Judy.  Dan was the Best Man at our wedding and he was Ratchlet's Godfather!  Originally from Chicago, Dan had moved to Toledo when he married Judy.  We hadn't seen him in five or six years!  We kept in touch, but not all that frequently, so we had no idea they were coming to S.F. for vacation!!  Nor did they expect to run into us.  What were the odds??  Amazing!


It was one of the biggest and best surprises I ever had.  The sort of thing that is "Hard to Believe"!Totally unplanned and completely unexpected!! It was great!


So, if that's NOT coincidence, what would you call it?


I'll share Exhibit B tomorrow!  Stay tuned!