Strange day

Strange day I’ve had. It started with the odd woman at the bus stop. Peculiar thing yet strangely familiar. She was dressed very smartly with a long, dark dress coat and dyed magenta hair. Her dangling Frida Kahlo earrings matched the large, pink Frida Kahlo bag that she clutched while staring forward with an intense seriousness. I had never seen her before and yet I have seen her a million times. Ran into a friend of a friend when I made my light rail connection and participated in friendly banter about her trip to Los Angeles that she was embarking on, evidenced by her carry-on bag and lack of an appropriately heavy coat. It was nice to chat and I got so engrossed in our discussion that I forgot to remind her that she was on a Green Line train and thus headed to downtown St Paul after the stop where I exited the train and not the airport as I’m guessing she was intending. Oops. I hope she wasn’t on a time crunch. Saw a former boss who got on an elevator with me at work. As is typical for her, she had a half smile, half surprised look and all I could think to say was, “it was meant to be,” which made us both break down laughing. At lunch at my favorite cheapie Chinese place I got a great fortune – “If you promise someone something, keep it.” Made me think of all the times I’ve said I should go get lunch with or hang out with someone and then didn’t for some reason. It inspired me to be more intentional. So I sent a text to a friend to whom I had spoken last weekend about getting together for dinner. Then, in the weirdest of coincidences, I ran into that very person on my train ride home not even a half an hour later. Regardless of what would eventually become of the dinner plans (we’ve since made some), it felt good to reach out – something I haven’t always been the best at doing. I was initially annoyed that I lost my contracted parking spot and now have to take public transport on days I don’t need access to my car but it really does free one up for observations, pondering thoughts, and serendipitous meetings, which I’ll have to say I actually prefer.