29 Jan 2010
Gooseberry Falls Hoodie
September 9, 2008
OK, the background on this one is that in the month or two since she and I had gotten (back) together, my girlfriend Becky had not yet met my friend Emilie, who I’d been hanging out with quite a bit in the previous year or so.
(Note her presence in several of the synchronicity stories on here, especially from 2007-2008).
Em’s life had just taken some sharp turns, which was why she hadn’t been around much recently, but it still felt weird that they had yet to meet – I mentioned Emilie often, and she was also friends with several of our friends. So it had been on my mind that it would be cool if they met.
Anyway, I’d taken a week off of work to get some stuff done around the house and relax. On Tuesday, Becky and I were in my bedroom getting dressed to go get some breakfast. Digging in my closet, she discovered a Gooseberry Falls State Park hooded sweatshirt, and immediately announced her intention to steal it.
(Becky and I have an special attachment to that park; we took a spontaneous roadtrip to Lake Superior the day after we first met in 2003, and we had quite a memorable time at Gooseberry, in spite of the rainy day. The wet weather chased away all the other people that would normally be swarming the park, and then just as we began to hike in, the rain stopped and the sun came out … the skies put on an amazingly beautiful show for us, with roiling clouds, sudden sunshine, and waves of mist cresting up over the shoreline cliffs.)
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Gooseberry Falls hoodie w/ photos from 2003
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“Well, I can let you half steal it, I suppose – I originally stole it from Emilie, so I can’t let you steal it entirely. I’m still not sure if she wants it back …”
I explained that I’d borrowed it from Em many months before in order to explore a vacant farmhouse – and while I didn’t think she’d ever outright, explicitly given it to me, she had indicated that she didn’t really need it back, either (since she preferred her hoodies much more loose-fitting).
So Becky put on the sweatshirt, and we got breakfast. After eating we decided to go hit a thrift store. Although we were originally going to hit the nearby Savers on Lake Street, it didn’t feel right, and I wanted to take the Riviera out on the highway. So we headed east past St. Paul to the Sun Ray Valu Thrift, where we spent almost an hour wandering the aisles.
When we went to check out, Becky lead the way along the registers as I eyed the movies along the checkout endcaps. She led us to the to the checkout line with the fewest people- just one woman and her little girl … and only when we had stopped in the line did I realize that I knew the woman – we were standing in line behind Emilie.
We’d been in the same store together the whole time without once seeing each other, until we converged on the same checkout lane at the same time – with Becky – for the first time – wearing Emilie’s sweatshirt.
It made for an amusing introduction.
synchronicity
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You brought back memories of college days and driving up to Gooseberry Falls from the Cities with a young woman I’d met in Rover’s Club at the U. Ah, 19 and in love – or was it in lust? Laurie, where are you?
Rob MacGregor
January 30th, 2010 at 8:31 ampermalink
It can be a very small world at times. I remember the last time we went to London (300+ miles from where we live) and we bumped into one of our neighbours we hadn’t seen otherwise for several weeks – and London’s a vet big place!
Must do a search for Goosberry Falls, looks interesting.
Mike.
67 Not Out (Mike Perry)
January 30th, 2010 at 9:49 ampermalink
Love this one, teapot!
Trish MacGregor
February 12th, 2010 at 2:52 pmpermalink
Maybe Emilie has some sort of psychic connection. Or maybe she’s engineering all of this to make you think it’s synchronicity, when really it’s a combination schizophrenia/mindfuck that’s going to come at you with knives when your guard is down!
thedaydreamnation
February 16th, 2010 at 10:02 pmpermalink
Yeah, both have crossed my mind more than once.
teapots happen
February 16th, 2010 at 11:41 pmpermalink