synchronicity

A while back I put a profile on Match.com. The way it works is you pay for the monthly service and you communicate with other Match subscribers. When you stop paying, your profile remains and others can still communicate with you, but you can't respond unless you've paid up.

I stopped paying a long time ago. But recently, a guy I once corresponded with but never met sent me a "wink." I wasn't inspired to sign up again, and figured Santa Barbara is small. I'll probably see him around town.

About a month later, I'm walking down the bike path at the ocean and this mug I vaguely recognize walks by. It's easy to let him keep walking--he doesn't know who I am. But then I remember...you were expecting this! This is the maybe-I'll-see-him-around-town moment. This is that guy. I don't even know his name. But I'm intrigued that I thought this, and here it is, so I turn around to stop him.

"Excuse me!"

He turns around.

"Are you a firefighter?"

"Among other things."

"I think we corresponded on Match."

He did this funny double-take, like, what?? You recognize me from a picture and called me out? We only had a few minutes to talk, but I was so curious at the synchronicity of what got me right there right then that I gave him my number so we could talk it out some more.

When we gabbed on the phone a few days later, we discovered an even stranger serendipity. The out-of-town cousin he was hosting that day is the recent ex of my friend, Ceal, the friend I had just spent my day with. And the common bond we all share is Michael. Firefighter dude went to high school with him. Ceal and I met through him.

Sometimes, we get spinning in such tight circles, we're sitting in our very own laps.