Yeah, sometimes strange things happen
If I've learned anything from TV, it's that life is weird. Not usually "The X Files" weird, but weird enough to make me realize some higher power's really messing with us.
Recent Weird Thing One
The parking lot at the post office was pretty empty. Good. Usually when I'm in a hurry the post office is full and everyone in line before me is there for a passport.
But I wasn't in a hurry that day; heck, I had all afternoon, so of course the parking lot was empty.
I got out of my car and almost stepped on a digital photo memory card. It's amazing what technology has brought us. We can fit part of someone's life on an almost weightless chip, but we can't figure out how to get along, decrease our dependency on fossil fuels, or cure male pattern baldness ... darn it.
I picked up the card. I'd feel guilty looking at the pictures - unless they were something Paris Hiltonesque I could make a fortune selling on the Internet - but I felt a pull to find out who the card belonged to. When I got home and slipped the card into my computer, I knew I had to hunt down its owner - the pictures were of a college graduation.
I searched the college's Web site for information ... nothing. I called the college PR department ... nothing. Then I called the local high school and they threw me a name that turned out to be wrong.
Fueled by visions of 1980s private investigator TV shows, I asked a random acquaintance where his daughter graduated college. Turns out the card belonged to his neighbor.
Recent Weird Thing Two
A high school friend of mine was a Swedish exchange student and I hadn't spoken to him since 1989.
After receiving an e-mail from a fan in Stockholm, I asked her to look up my friend's name in a telephone directory. She did and I sent a letter to the address she gave me - it belonged to my high school friend. Funny thing is, after almost 20 years, he'd just started the process of looking me up, too.
Recent Weird Thing Three
I stopped at a gas station in Sedalia, Mo., and bought a bag of peanuts. When the cashier handed me the change, I noticed someone had written on one of the dollar bills. I spread the bill out and it read, "Jason Offutt Rocks." I'd written those words on a dollar bill in 1991 and spent it in Lake Geneva, Wis.
OK, so I made up number three, but the other stories are true. Yeah, the world's pretty weird. If coincidences come in threes, I hope the next one involves somebody who owes me more than a dollar.
