The Habitrail

(Bear with me if you don’t know the people I’m talking about in this tale.)

I guess it all started earlier this week when two things happened. First, I decided that I really needed to shift my sleeping schedule back to somewhat normal in preparation for needing to be at work at 9 a.m. on Monday for orientation, and the other being that for some reason I had it stuck in my head that the final AOD staff meeting was this Sunday, not next.

So this morning, when I’ve awoken at a time that’s still rather late by most people’s standards but early for my forward shifted sleep schedule (and not early enough, I had to sleep in yesterday because I woke up with a headache and ended up having to sleep it off). So I checked my email for the time of the meeting, saw it was at 3 p.m., not noticing the date, and at around 2, left for a haircut and to drive up to San Francisco.

Getting my hair cut made me late (or so I thought) so I got to the hotel at 3:15, and didn’t see anyone around. Assuming they had already started, I looked at the hotel schedule and didn’t see anything. I begun to get nagging doubts in my head (especially since I hadn’t been contacted earlier in the day asking to carpool up, which usually happens) so I used my cell phone to check my email, a process which took a bit too long for this day and age, and eventually determined that I was, indeed, around 167 hours early for this particular event.

Now I’m in the city with nothing to do, and an hour’s drive behind me and ahead of me make me think I should at least make the best of it. So I figure now is as good as a time as any to visit the restaurant owned by Dom’s cousins, whom I play WoW with. When I call Dom for the address, though, he informs me that they are closed and won’t open until 6 for dinner, adding that he’s sure I could find something to amuse myself. It is San Francisco, after all.

My typical location of amusement happens to be only a few blocks away, so I drive to Japantown. And this is where my tale starts taking a turn for the surreal. It just so happens that today was the Nihonmachi Street Fair. It didn’t really impact me so much, because I was making a beeline for he theater, I figured I could kill time with a movie. After buying a ticket, I leave to go buy a crepe and I notice the woman leaving the theater ahead of me looks familiar. “Rannie?” I ask as I tap her on the shoulder. Sure enough, it’s her. I explain the mistake that led me here, she tries introducing me to the guy she’s there with, but when she pauses after “this is ___, my….” I wave it off, because I know sometimes it’s kinda complicated. We talk for a little bit, but eventually she leaves and I go off to get my crepe. After going upstairs and ordering and waiting for my crepe to be done, I look around in the crowd to see if there’s anyone else I know.

And there is.

Off in the distance I see none other than Hong, wearing a Salsa Dancing T-Shirt and chatting up some girl. I wander over in a daze and surprise the heck out of him, especially with my goatee. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen him, and even longer since I saw him on any regular occasion. (Yes, 5XL has been broken up for six years now.) We do a bit of catching up, talk about being old and me not staffing anime cons anymore. Eventually the pressures of the crepe and the movie starting make the conversation end, and as I tardily claim my crepe and walk back to the theater.

The rest of the evening was fairly normal, aside from the fact that it involved a Vietnamese Fusion restaurant in the heart of the Castro District. When I first said hello to Kevin it was kinda funny. I said “It’s Andy.” and he just kinda acted friendly, then I added “you, know… Werehamster” and his eyes lit up. Also at the table next to me was another guildie, celebrating his birthday with his family. The food was good, I think I made a mistake ordering an appetizer and entree that both involved fried food. They were both very good but I think it was just too much fried for one meal.

On the drive down I had a weird sort of epiphany. I’ve had days like this before, where weird coincidences show up. One of the things that went on at the table next to me was the scratching off of lottery tickets. I remembered that I used to buy lotto tickets on days like this, and numbers seemed to be very prominent in many of the events of the day, so I stopped and bought one on the way home. I did four quick-picks, and one where I specifically chose the numbers based on the things that happened.

I’d add a bit more, but I’m actually getting legitimately tired, due to the purposeful deprivation of sleep last night and walking around the city. I hope I can actually fall asleep, I have to wake up dang early tomorrow…