Cambridge Coincidences Collection

As a prologue, I have explain that I inherited rather distinctive last name. Chances are, that if we share my last name, we're related. In the 90s, I worked my way through college working in a gas station. Routinely, people would pas for gasoline with a credit card, so I would learn the names of random people. One day, a gentleman handed me his credit card. In processing his purchase, I noted we shared a last name. When I told him this, he didn't believe me. I had to show him my driver's license to prove it. A bit of genealogical research (done by my father) proved that he was a previously unknown cousin. His family descended from a brother of my great-great grandfather that left Poland at the end of the 19th century. He was a recent immigrant to America and stumbled across me in Michigan.

I grew up in Virginia and when I was in high school, I had a massive crush on a guy who was a senior when I was a freshman (2003). In August of 2006, I traveled to the south of Italy and we ran into each other on the top of Pompeii. Later, in June of 2008, I traveled to Barcelona and we ran into each other crossing a street near Las Ramblas.

I was driving home. As I pulled onto the street toward my house, I noticed in my rearview mirror, something big and black in the road. It occurred to me that it was a dog, laying in the shade of a tree in the middle of the street. I drove over, got out of my car, and walked up to the dog (a lovable black lab) who was all too happy to continue laying in the street wagging his tail. I walked him to the sidewalk, looked at his collar, and called the number. The woman who answered became very concerned, primarily because she lived in Florida, 1700 miles away. She began having a conversation with another person, and I overheard the name of the dog, "Tracer." </p> <p>It then occurred to me. A year before, I had spent the summer working in Alabama with my sister's father-in-law. He and his wife had a dog named "Tracer," a black lab, and they had since moved from Alabama to Florida. Could this be their dog? I live in the southwest, how did he get 1700 miles from home? I looked closer, and sure enough I knew this dog. Moreover, I knew the owner. I had known them since before they moved to Alabama, when they lived in my home city.

I went to film school with a guy named Zack. We weren't super close, but we worked on some films together and were friendly. </p> <p>I graduated August 2005. I moved to Los Angeles for an internship at a small film production company in Beverly Hills. I lived in a house in Hollywood. I did little else at this time besides go to work and go home and do more work. So most of my routine kept me in that small area. The exception was church. I found a great church in Burbank and I started going to Sunday services and Bible study on Wednesday nights. </p> <p>About two months in I was up in Burbank on a Wednesday night. I needed gas, so I pulled over at a random gas station I had never been to before. I filled up and got back in my truck. I just happened to look up into my rear view mirror and BAM, there's Zack. </p> <p>We're in a metropolitan area of like 8 million people and just happened to go to the same gas station on the same night at the same time AND I just happened to look in my rear view mirror at the right time.