Friday, December 19, 2008

Twilight Zone




Have you ever had a really strange coincidence happen in your life that makes you feel like the Twilight Zone music should start playing in the background? Seems like everyone has a story like this, but I wanted to share it anyway...

A couple weeks ago, I was getting ready for my women's group December meeting (aka, pig out at the Mexican restaurant), and Frank came home from work. His first words were,

"Don't be mad. I did NOT order that guitar on the porch."

WHAT?! I didn't even know there WAS a guitar on the porch. Upon further inspection, the UPS man(or woman) had delivered a very nice brand new Gibson Les Paul guitar to our doorstep. Unfortunately, it was supposed to go a house in town with the same address but on the NORTH side of the street versus the SOUTH. Someone would be missing their guitar...probably a Christmas present. So I loaded up the big box in the van and decided to play Santa/UPS girl on my way to the restaurant.

When I found the house, I was a little nervous. I am walking up to a stranger's door unannounced in the dark, I thought. Hopefully I could shield my body from the bullets with the guitar box, should the occupant be trigger happy. Then I shook my head. I have GOT to stop watching crime dramas, I told myself.

I didn't even make it to the door before it opened and a nice looking guy about my own age stepped out. He looked relieved. He must have been waiting all day for his "baby" to arrive and instantly I felt the bond of musicianship.

"Uh, they delivered this our house by mistake today. Thought you might miss it. It's a nice guitar!" I said.

"Thanks! I was worried it wasn't going to come today!" he said.

"Well, my husband plays, and might have thought about keeping it for a second," I said, revealing way too much information while talking to a stranger. (Also, Frank was the one who WANTED me to take it to the correct house. Maybe I was the one with guitar envy...hmmm)

"Tell him he has good taste!" he said.

And on I went to my meeting. I was a little late and told my guitar story/excuse. We had a good time pigging out. At the close of the meeting, we headed to Wal-Mart to pick names off of the tree of some children to help for Christmas out of our cheeseball sale profits. I gave my friend Stacy a ride, since her husband Josh dropped her off and was playing guitar with a friend of his that he met at work. She said he was pretty cool, was new to Sullivan and was getting a new guitar he wanted to try out. When we got ready to leave Wal-Mart, I asked Stacy if she needed a ride to Josh's friend's house. It would work out well, she thought, because he lived on the same street I did. Wait a minute. Do I hear music?

Doo doo doo doo. Twilight Zone.

You guessed it. Josh's new friend was the guy I took the guitar to! Not the biggest coincidence in the world since there's not THAT many people in Sullivan, Indiana. But I still think it's funny that Josh has two guitar playing friends who have the same address (except for the North and South thing). So I ended up taking Stacy back to the very same house I had just been to a couple hours before.

9 comments:

Helen said...

Nice! I love coincidences like that! How far did you have to drive? In Chicago, that could have taken a couple of hours ( or a few minutes if we are talking 100 S. vs. 100N.). Anyway, it was nice that you took it to him right away. I'm sure it warmed your heart even more to know you had helped the friend of a friend.

Beth said...

401 S. vs. 401 N. takes approximately 3 mintues of driving time, but only if you get stopped by the stoplight. One of two stoplights in the greater Sullivan metropolis area. However, I drove by a couple of times when I tried to find it because it was in the dark and I really didn't want to be at the wrong house.

Mary Ann said...

ahhhh!! That's so crazy. That could have been an awkward experience had you not brought it back...ouch.

Fun story!

katdish said...

Dang!

You forgot the part of the story where the guy comes over to your house, overwhelmed with gratitude and the magic of the Christmas, gives Frank a one-of-a-kind Stratocaster signed by the legendary Stevie Ray Vaughn and then he and Frank break out the monitors and proceed to rock the house with a stirring rendition of VooDoo Chili!

Yeah, I know...I need to finish decorating my Christmas tree...

Beth said...

How did you know Frank was more into strats??

Doo doo doo doo.

And monitors? Kathy, please. We have a whole system at our house. A small one, yes, but you should have seen the equipment before we had 3 kids...of course it's always way used and beat up, but still...I think we both prefer music gear to say...oh...real furniture that was not given to us or bought at Goodwill....

katdish said...

Speaking of Twilight Zone, you and Frank totally remind me of Jeff and Tamara! (And they're secretly coveting you both for our church plant -shhhhh! Don't tell them I said that.)

Beth said...

Yowsers, I'm causing a pastor to break one of the 10 commandments! Jeff, are you lurking around my blog???

No, that's a huge compliment from what I know of Jeff and Tamara. There's about 68 million reasons why it probably won't happen, but don't you think I haven't dreamed a little bit about haulin' everyone down to Texas...and I never say never to God. Well, I don't anymore.

Jeff said...

Okay Beth, so I am lurking a little bit, but how could I resist reading a post that has a guitar picture?

And I don't know what Kathy was thinking- I would NEVER dream of stealing you guys away from where your at. I'd totally want it to be a God thing.

By the way, it was 74 degrees here today... :)

katdish said...

Yeah, I put my yard decorations up today in shorts and flip flops. But you're right Jeff...totally a God thing. Hey did you notice that gas was $1.20 gallon the other day? Oh, and Katy ISD school were among the highest rated in the country (AGAIN!) Must be the low housing costs and the higher standard of living that's bringing all those great teachers this way...

Oh...sorry Beth. I was talking to Jeff.