walking right into a miracle

i'm typically not a huggy person. i don't hug people, except for philip and the occasional family member.
i'm also not really a "surprise" kind of person ... i like to think i am, but i am not.

so you could easily conclude that a huggy hug + suprising kirsten = not expected, encouraged, or expedited.


truer words were never spoken.


any pre-concieved, self-righteous notions of mine that i had idealized before our encounter were by this point purely illogical at best, and the fact of the matter, simply put, was this: I was standing perfectly still, experiencing the shock of my lifetime, while simultaneously blocking Herald Square's busiest oncoming Starbuck traffic.

This caused a few new yorkers to be unpleasant.
however, the sea of latte-hungry caffiene addicts was not my primary concern, not even in the slightest.
i don't even really remember anyone else in that shop, except for her.

i looked down at my left shoulder, and noticed it was soaked with fresh mascara-infused tear stains. i felt this tightening sensation all around my body as these long, feminine arms joyfully embraced me, and watched a flurry of long blond hair poof up next to my face and bob up and down in rhythm with new fresh tear stains. her hair oddly smelled similar to the subway I'd just compacted myself in to get to here, which made me curious as to which subway this hair had also adventured in, and if one could someday truly recognize each subway line just by its own unique scent. (i have since made this one of my goals in life, but this is beside the point).

i have seen all the gruesome youtube videos no one should ever see, i have seen a puppy dog smashed by cars on a highway, i have seen mickey mouse without his head on backstage at disney - but this moment was by far the most shocking event of my life to date. cross my heart and hope to die.

i can remember staring at her pink lips, still smiling at me, forming words resonating out in joyful tones but not registering whatsoever. I do remember wondering somewhere in my tangential thinking how it was possible her cheeks could be so rosy and cheerful. maybe she's born with it ... maybe it's maybelline.

"... but really, it's just so incredible to finally meet you!" she sighed with this interesting sense of relief, as if it was some great ordeal to have found me. Me, just .. innocently walking into a starbucks. She bounced down onto a chair besides us, and rubbed the small of back, wincing.

had she traveled so far to come here that she was in pain? was it really so far to walk from whatever rock she'd crawled out from under to 46th and Broadway? ... or was it 64th and Broadway? Fantastic. I'm sitting here with a weeping crazy woman, and I can't even recall my current location.

and this, my friends, is how people get abducted.

i knew I should have read that Jaycee Dugard abductee article in People magazine more thoroughly. nobody here would think a crying woman is a potential abductor - this is new york city, home of the crazies. i mean, they're trying to get a naked cowboy to run for governor. my situation ... nothin'.

i guess i must have been thinking about how the naked cowboy must survive in the snowy wintertime for too long, because i suddenly snapped back to whatever state of reality i was in and realized that she was looking at me with that "now-its-your-turn-to-say-something" look on her rosy face.



wait, hold the phone. where was i?

oh yeah, sitting at a starbucks with a crying woman who was oddly extremely happy to meet me, happy enough to cry all over my shirt and squeeze my lungs so i could only breathe at around 60% capacity for the following few minutes. not to mention the uncomfortable feeling i couldn't shake from being hugged AND surprised all in one fell swoop. I debated making a mad dash for the revolving door, but decided against it. I hit my forehead on one of those things once, never was the same.

but now that i think about it, i was exactly in the same situation as that fingerprinted revolving door at that moment, bringing in the new and taking out the old. my entire life was a revolving door, leaving home potentially for good with no warning, finding two jobs within 24 hours in the city, and discovering my passion unlock itself into a whole new state of glory and stage of my life. what did i have against revolving doors, especially if i was one?

i decided to turn back to my strange new friend and give the revolving door a second shot.

my life will never be the same :)