Thursday, June 4, 2009

NYC

I really am curious about the mathematical probability of this happening.

I can tell you that approximately 20,000 students attend Cal Poly Pomona (CPP). If I were being extremely generous, I would say there are 250 in the Theatre program at Cal Poly, either majoring or minoring.

Last year, Aaron and I, both CPP graduates with minors in theatre, planned a trip to NYC with Joe and Nathan, also CPP graduates who majored in theatre. We chose the week of July 27th to August 3rd for our visit.

Sometime in May or June we went to see Nathan complete his senior project at the studio theatre at Cal Poly. While we were there, we saw Carlos and Samantha (also CPP theatre grads). We were making small talk, plans for the summer, etc... and found out they were going to NYC, as well. We asked them what dates. Oddly enough, their trip was planned for July 26th to August 2nd.

Ahem. Weird enough? Now there will be 6 people from the same miniscule department in the same big city at pretty much the same time.

Fast forward. We arrive in NYC as planned, meet up with Carlos and Samantha, as planned, and find out from Carlos that Wahima was getting in the next day. She was actually moving to NYC and had been in Belize for a few weeks spending time with family. What day did she arrive? Oh, yes, July 28th. Are you kidding me?

It gets better.

As we're standing there talking about how crazy it was that Wahima was going to be making her NY debut while we were all there, Joe casually mentioned that he thought Dave and Sio might be there, as well. He wasn't 100% sure, there was a chance they may have been on a plane home when we got there. Yes, Dave is a CPP grad. Sio, his girlfriend, was the only non-CPP person in this story.

Aaron called Dave and left him a message.

The next morning, we get up early to go get Conan tix and we decide to sightsee around Rockefeller center since we're already there. We made our way around and found ourselves in St. Patrick's Cathedral. Well, the guys found themselves inside, I was still outside snapping a bazillion pictures. Aaron came back to get me and was pretty insistent that I come inside.

Apparently, while Joe, Nathan, and Aaron were walking into the cathedral, Nathan turned around to see Dave standing there.

Have you ever been to this cathedral? I mean, it's HUGE. I am fairly certain that the likelihood of 2 people who know each other being in the entryway at almost the exact same time is pretty slim. Not to mention the fact that there are so many other people who we could have run into, but for it to be Dave? Someone we all knew?

Let me insert here that there was also a large group of people who Aaron and I know from Flipside who were in NYC at the same time. We did not once see or cross paths with them.

WEIRD.

Everyone except for Wa met up at a dive bar that night (Monday) to hang out and celebrate the oddity. I think Wa might have come if she felt she could have navigated the public transit well enough. She was pretty far out in the Bronx at the time, so no one really wanted her to risk life and limb to come have a beer. I did get to spend some time with her later in the week, which was great because A., I love her, and B., I needed some time away from those nerd-boys (whom I also love, but who were really geeking out together quite a bit over things I know little or nothing about, ie comic books and video games).

It was a great week. I really do think it was pretty magical how everything worked out. It definitely made it a memorable vacation. That and I absolutely fell head over heels in love with that city and was really wishing I could move out there even if only for a year.

So, that's my "coincidence" story for the day.

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