Random chance and happenstance

Well, this story is kind of old, but I haven't blogged for a while, so I have to catch up. ... After dropping Ellie off at her piano lesson last weekend, Hugo and I stopped by the Safeway across the street from the piano school to do some grocery shopping. I've never actually been in this store before, and probably won't be going there very often in the future, which makes the following occurence even more coincidental than it might otherwise have been. While wandering the aisles looking for something or other, we passed a man pushing a stroller with a boy in it. The boy looked very much like his father, and the father looked very much like somebody I knew. I did a quick double-take, told myself it was impossible, then did a triple-take when I heard the man's voice. I still told myself it was impossible, and turned the other way down the aisle. However, curiosity got the best of me, and I accosted the man and his wife as they left the store, saying, "Excuse me, but you didn't, by any chance, used to teach at a high school in Santa Cruz, did you?" It turns out that I was right -- I had met Dennis McLain, my US Government teacher (for one semester) from Soquel High! Turns out he moved up to Beaverton about the same time I did, and has been enjoying it almost as much as I am. I was pretty surprised that he remembered me. I had to remind him of my name, of course, but he said he had done a double-take on me as well, and commented, "You had longer hair back then." So he actually did remember me as an individual, not just a random student from the past. Anyway, that was kind of cool. I like it when funny, completely unexpected things like that happen.

Happy Birthday to Robbie yesterday, and Happy Birthday to Hugo tomorrow!