Chance Happens

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Posts Tagged Chicago

Love Found and City Bound

Dec 18

Posted by tdomf_3594f in love | No Comments

I met my first boyfriend and quickly became involved in a spirit-breaking relationship. This lasted for a few years, and during the course I met his friends and family and we all got along famously. He was a karaoke DJ, so I got into singing karaoke. After finally having the courage to leave him, I moved out and took my dreams back.

One night a year later, I won a karaoke contest singing the song “Ballroom Blitz” and won a $50 prize, and stashed the money to use on “something perfect.” Time went by, I forgot about the money, and I started talking more and more with Aaron, my ex’s brother, who lives in Chicago. We had been great friends from the start. He suggested I visit sometime, but it didn’t seem possible because I lived in a tiny rural town in South Eastern Ohio, eight hours away. We didn’t talk for a little while, and we even started talking to other people. I read about feng shui and started re-arranging and organizing my apartment, with the intentions of “making room” for a mate. I randomly requested Memorial Day Weekend off thinking I could spend it with family, but on Thursday night decided to drive to Chicago using my prize money as gas money.

I called him and asked if it was cool, he excitingly told me yes. I drove up the next morning by myself, never having driven that far alone or in the city. We had the most amazing weekend! He was such a gentleman and we instantly fell in love. I went back home, but moved within the month to the city! All that house organization made is extremely easy to move! On the way, we got stuck in traffic and my car not only started overheating, but running out of gas as well. Full of faith, we pressed on and made it just fine. Aaron is amazing and his family is still great and understanding . I love the city and all the opportunities! I once requested information from an art school in Chicago, because I want to study fashion. I put the pamphlet away because it didn’t seem feasible, and then I found it again after I moved. I plan to start school next year. If it hadn’t been for my ex-boyfriend, one of the hardest things I’ve had to go through, I wouldn’t have met Aaron or be able to fulfill my dreams! To top everything off, my karaoke contest song choice “Ballroom Blitz” was also sang by Tia Carrere in the movie Wayne’s World, which takes place in… Chicago!

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See you later mate!

Dec 4

Posted by Staff in synchronicity | No Comments

I had just finished working at convention at McCormick’s place in Chicago and to avoid hassle I had ridden my bicycle there from my apartment on the north shore of Chicago. I was exhausted and hungry from working the convention floor, so I stopped to get a dinner at a bar on Rush Street on my way home when I sat down at the bar ordered my food and sitting next to me was a weary traveler who had just landed in America on a 3 month tour of the U.S. from England. We hit it off talking about bicycle racing and the Tour de France and decided to have a few drinks after dinner by going across the street together. We partied to the closing bell and we met two foreign nannies out partying and we left the bar as if we had known each other for years with a hug and a bid farewell on your 3 month journey of the U.S.

Three months later I was in New York on a business trip and went for a 3 mile walk and decided I was hungry, so I stopped in a bar to get some food and sitting to my right was James on his last night in the U.S. He thought at first that I was paid by his father to follow me on his journey of the U.S., but I assured him it was a completely random event. We ended the night by going to a club and saying goodbye the same way as we left the club. Laughing all the way home about the odds of running into the same person in two major cities on their first and last night of a 3 month tour of the U.S. The odds have to a 3 billion to 1 of this ever happening again.

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twist and turns

Oct 23

Posted by Staff in connection | No Comments

As people grow up in this world today it seems that everybody is facing the same problems. people can’t seem to get away from things like this struggling economy, law enforcement, Drug Abuse, Death, lies, and greed. For me this struggle never stops. about 2 years ago i was researching on the internet and i found the Appalachian Trail. 2167 miles from georgia to maine with nothing but a thick, wet, cold, hot, rocky, muddy terrain that constantly goes up and down through all of the appalachian mountains. this was for me. so two of my friends and I decided that we were going to do this. we didnt want to do the whole through hike because that takes up to six months and we were low on cash so we started from hot springs north carolina with nothing but the oversized packs on our backs and and a couple hundred bucks in our pockets. We’re all from Chicago’s south suburbs and we lived in the woods all of our lives. we love it.. the nature, the solitude, everything. but we have never walked more than 4 miles in the woods in our lives and we were about to walk some insane mountains on the east coast. the first attempt at walking the A.T. we walked 70 miles. Eight days to walk from town to town. the reason for coming home so soon was the fact that we all got really sick and fed up with a constant downpour for 6 days straight!!! Well, twenty hours and three greyhound buses later were back in Chicago and i have never been so disgusted in my life. the air was so polluted, the noise, all the anger and hatred on the streets, and coming back into this world with still no money and having to start over is not an easy task to do and lets just leave it at that… I’m Going back to the mountians every year until i finish the whole thing. Life on the A.T. is So inspiring and true eye opener. If you dont Know your true colors believe me they will blossom while your trekking that mountain! So i’m back, Waiting and preparing for a 2 in a half week hike next year and thats all i can think about. im working a Worthless job, playing in an underground band with a spit of pay on the weekends, driving a P.O.S. Jeep that i get tickets in every time i start the thing, and just can never catch a break. Thing just keep on coming…..

and theres plenty more were that came from!!

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A Chance Encounter

Sep 23

Posted by Staff in connection, redemption | No Comments

This story was sent in by Cheryl Miller.

When I was a young mother of 3 boys, I became a foster parent to two girls, ages 5 & 6. They were a part of my family for two years, until just before my divorce. After the girls were placed in their next foster home, the agency recommended that they have no contact to insure bonding with the new foster mother- even though I missed them and wanted to make sure that they were doing well. I ran into the girls at the Blockbuster one evening about a year after they left my home, but there were no phone calls, no letters, etc.

I had just become engaged to a man in Atlanta, almost 1,000 miles away, and was in the process of wrapping up the many strands of my life in Chicago, where I’d lived for almost 20 years. I was making a trip down to Atlanta with my son Mark to visit my fiancee Steve during Spring Break 2000, just a few months before I was to leave Chicago forever.

We checked into our flight, which was leaving Chicago, routing through Kansas City, MO and then going on to Atlanta, As we settled into our plane seats, finding our buckles, etc. who would walk down the aisle, but my two former foster girls. This was almost 8 years since I’d last seen them and we had a great time catching up and meeting their new adoptive mother. I heard about J’s driving lessons (she was now 16) and A’s new cat and her own new bedroom room — NOT shared with her sister.  After we landed, we caught up and then continued on to California to a wedding while my son Mark and I continued on to Atlanta and our new life.

This was such a blessing to me to finally find out what happened to my two little girls and it was because of a chance encounter at one of the busiest airports in the country. It tied up one loose end and eased my mind before I made my big move to my new life in Atlanta.

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A huge bright white room

Sep 16

Posted by Staff in connection, love | No Comments

This story comes from Patti Wood of the Atlanta, GA area.

I have often wondered if premonitions so called chance encounters and first impressions are oddly related. You know, hebejeebie, new age, I met you in a past life, let’s burn some incense odd.

Years ago, a few days before Valentine’s day. I had a strange premonition. I was in a huge bright white room with really high ceilings and there was a very shy sweet man standing in front of me. I could tell by his body language that he was really nervous and then he asked me out and I said, “Yes, I would love to.” This was odd in so many ways, not the least of which was that I hadn’t dated in five years and couldn’t image standing in some weird white room with a stranger and saying I would go out with him.

A few days later on Valentine’s Day I was stuck in snow storm in a very crowded Chicago airport. I had been standing in the security line quite awhile when I realized I didn’t have a plastic bag for my makeup so I had to get out of line. I got back in line and opened my water bottle, the water was carbonated and had gotten quite a bit of shaking in my briefcase so the water spouted up and all over me. I started laughing and the gentleman in line behind me smiled. I thought what a sweet man, and we struck up a conversation. We talked a bit and said goodbye after we went through the check point. Later I got in line to get in an airport restaurant and something just told me that I didn’t want to get in line yet so I went to a bookstore. I got back in line and had my eye on a quite table that was about to come open but the two guys behind me asked me if I wanted the seat at the bar that was open. I hate sitting at the bar of a restaurant, but something told me I should take it so I said I will take it and when I sat down I discovered the guy from the security line was sitting right next to me. We ended up talking for 2 and half hours about; Music, TV shows from the seventies, relationships and loving our work. As we shared and laughed together we marveled at how many things we had in common. We bonded. We were about to say goodbye and get on our delayed flights when we noticed we were about to get on the same plane. When I got off the plane in Atlanta the guy walked with me to baggage claim and we kept talking and laughing. We got to baggage claim and I looked at him and noticed that he was shy and nervous all of a sudden. I looked up and realized I was in a huge bright white room with high ceilings and that they sweet guy was about to ask me out. He asked me out I said, “Yes, I would love to.” And we became sweeties.

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