It's A Small World...

Nine days. In a period of just nine days, I have had two "this never happens in real life" events happen to me. What the frak is up with that?!?

The first event was the night of my ten-year high school reunion. After the official festivities had ended, several of us walked down to another hotel, The W, to their club on the second-level with white sand everywhere called Beach. At one point in the evening, I needed some water to help a friend who had fallen on the stairs, so I walked up to the bar and submitted my request.

In order to get the full grasp of the situation that I'm about to tell you, I must explain how I was dressed. It was my standard "red carpet" attire: pinstripe suit, black shirt, tie, fedora (the $140 leather Stetson, not the worn-in rabbit fur fedora that I staple with my daily wear), and tan trenchcoat that used to belong to my grandfather. As Thierrion says, I "am the man" in this suit. Hehe.

Okay, back on track: As I am waiting for my water, I feel the sensation of a woman grind-dancing against my back. I try to look behind me and see which of my alumni had a little too much to drink. When she finally stepped to the side, I got a quizzical look on my face.

"I don't know you, do I?" I asked.

"Hi," she responded with a smile and an accent. I could tell that she had been drinking a bit and she looked like she had gotten a lot of sun earlier in the day. "I'm Kim. I'm from Sweden and I go to SDSU. I really like your trenchcoat and hat."

"Well, it was nice to meet you, Kim." I said, trying to get myself out of this potentially dangerous situation for someone who is saving himself for someone amazing. "I have to go play the hero and use this water to clean up a friend's wound. I'll see you around."

It wasn't until later that I stopped to think just how surreal that was. It never happens in real life! At least it's not supposed to. Especially not to me.

Fast forward to today. Insert swooshy flashback visual to bring us back to the present (a la Wayne's World).

For the past couple of weeks, James and I had planned to spend Labor Day at Disneyland. Since it was just the two of us and we have season passports, we were able to approach the day with leisure and calmness. We started at noon and didn't rush ourselves at any part of the day.

As we were finishing at Disney's California Adventure and the park prepared to close, James remembered that I had never eaten a funnel cake and made it his mission to procure one for me. We began searching. He looked high and I looked low, but we couldn't find anything in that park.

"I bet that we can find one in the boxcar dessert place," I told him.

"You think so, huh?" James responded. "Well, customer service is right here, so I am going to ask them."

"Okay. You ask them and I'm going to go check out --" I stopped speaking as soon as I saw the person behind the counter of the information booth. "Nevermind, I'm going to go with you to the customer service counter to hear what they say."

James couldn't help himself as he chuckled at my reaction before turning his attention to the attractive, young woman behind the counter. One of the first things I noticed was her name. It was very unique and beautiful. Let's just call her "Autumn-Daisy" as I'm not comfortable putting her real name here (but she will know it is her if she reads this).

"This young man has never had funnel cake and we are on a mission to find some," he explained.

"You really like funnel cake?" Autumn-Daisy asked as she began a dialogue with us. "I never cared for it myself."

"Well, we figure that he should eat 'deep-fried dough, sprinkled with powdered sugar' at least once in his life." James responded, again with a chuckle.

A little bit of additional banter with Autumn-Daisy and we were on our way back to Disneyland with my sweet treasure within our grasp. Sure enough, the funnel cake was soon mine and we sat as I consumed.

"She was right," I blurted out between bites. "I don't care much for this. I'm glad I have had it once, but I'm not sure that I'll ever order a funnel cake again."

And then an odd thought entered my head: I should write a "thank you" note on the back of my business card and see if they will give it to Autumn-Daisy.

I borrowed a pen from James and quickly scribbled the following:

"Autumn-Daisy,

You were right. I didn't like the funnel cake, either. I'm glad that I at least tried it once.

Thank you, -Aaron"

We approached the Disneyland Town Hall, where I stood in line for about ten minutes and pondered ways I could over-complicate the letter. In the end, I kept the short and simple message intact (thanks to James, who wouldn't even let me re-write the note because my "Y" didn't look like the way I normally write it).

Mind you, I have no expectation of hearing from Autumn-Daisy. Yeah, the note is a form of flirting, but I was doing this more to put a smile on her face. Granted that I would never see said smile, but that was my intention. What happened next, however, would blow my mind and might tip the odds of a phone call in my favor.

I approach the blonde behind the counter and begin, "we met an extremely helpful person over at Disney's California Adventure and I was hoping that I could leave a thank you note for them."

She began to explain that they wouldn't give her my note, but that I could tell her what happened verbally and she would write it down and her supervisor would share it with her.

I was uncharacteristically at a loss for words. I hadn't predicted this snafu and I suddenly could get little more out than "she was... quite helpful... and... helpful... with... pleasant conversation..."

"Go ahead and show her the card and the note that you wrote," James interjected. I complied. Immediately, her eyes were drawn to the name across the top.

"Oh, my God!" she exclaimed. "Autumn-Daisy is my roommate!"

"Are you serious?" I asked. "Theoretically, you could just give this note to her when you see her tonight."

Her eyes lit up. "I could," she said as she slipped the card into her blouse and continued to fill out the commendation form.

With our mission accomplished, James and I walked out the door and simply looked at each other once we were out of sight. And then we began to laugh. Situations like these may be the stuff of movies, but to have two events happen within two weeks time frame... How insane is that?


Blogged from my iPhone 3G.