jianantonic | Life is full of coincidences.

Back in March of 2003, I spent a week in Philadelphia at a national bridge tournament. I made lots of friends there, most of whom I hung out with for a week and never saw again. I ran into a few others at other tournaments down the road, but most of the Philly crew weren't really into the whole bridge scene. They were just temp caddies - local college students with nothing better to do on their spring breaks - like me, only cooler, because they didn't spend *all* their free time at bridge tournaments. Anyway, I particularly bonded with a young man named Chris. He was a fascinating individual, a student at La Salle, I believe, from Yonkers, NY. He had recently converted to Islam. We talked about religion and peace and our hopes and dreams for the future, and I just really liked the guy (as a friend - was already dating Jeremy by then). We exchanged email addresses at the end of the week and kept in touch throughout the next several months. Then the emails tapered off and we just kind of lost touch.

I was thinking about Islam today, just randomly, and since Chris is the only Muslim I have ever really known, he popped into my head. It's been at least two years since we last communicated, and a long while since I've really thought of him. But it made me sad how we'd lost touch, and I wished I could somehow contact him again - but alas, I was using a different email account back then, and couldn't dig up his contact info if I tried. Oh well.

After dinner, I decided I wanted to move the bed in our room. This decision was accompanied by a (short-lived) mission from God cleaning spree. I did laundry, sorted out things that I'm finally ready to get rid of, and rearranged my bedroom. In doing all this, I came across an old jewelry box that I haven't used in years. I opened the drawer just to see if I'd stashed any goods in there, and much to my astonishment, there was only one thing in the drawer. A piece of paper with Chris' full name and email address. Crazy! So I tucked the paper in my pocket, rode out my wave of domestic passion, and then came upstairs to try the email address. It didn't get fired back immediately, so I'm hoping he still uses this address. Isn't that just a wild coincidence? I mean, I'd barely thought about him in months, and today of all days, I long to contact him but can't...and then I can. And I wasn't even looking for the address. So weird. Maybe I've been good lately:)

Peace.