Don't Wanna Miss A Thing

A few Novembers back, I was doing volunteer work in another part of the country when the weather got kinda chilly. A bunch of us headed to a nearby drugstore for a junk-food run, where I found a heavy sweatshirt for $6 - on discount because of a badly sewn arm. After about 20 minutes of hand-stitching while sitting on a bunk bed in a cold church multi-use room, I had a new sweatshirt that I would take home with me at the end of that week. It was very warm and soft and, while it had a VERY basic design to it, it was just what I needed. It simply says "Biloxi, MS".

Flash forward:
It is a cold, rainy day. I'm wearing jeans, sneakers, and that sweatshirt, which I chose specifically because it is good at keeping me warm. I'm sitting in my usual coffee shop. It's nearly 10am and I'm watching a few clips online and sending out a few emails - nothing major. A VERY pregnant woman enters the shop and sits at the table across from mine. After a few minutes of clicking on her computer, she asks me if I know how to get online. I do. I guide her to the right windows and, a few minutes later, she's up and running.

We get to talking.

(An aside - this happens to me all the time. Strangers open up to me regularly. I was at this same coffee shop just a few days ago when a couple traveling from Texas walked in. I had extra chairs at my table and offered them one. They misunderstood my offer and sat down with me, which was fine. In their short time with me, I learned that they'd been driving for 40+ hours with stops along the way. I also learned that she was returning to graduate school in the NorthEast and he was driving her out, hoping to get a job there so he wouldn't have to come all the way back home alone.)

Anyway, it seems that this woman, Katie, works for an online company and she was planning on working home today, except her power went out. She likes her job but wishes that her manager, who works on the opposite coast, would allow her to work from home more, especially in her very pregnant state. I ask her just how pregnant she is and she says she's due in three days.

I also learn that Katie and her husband, Steve, met while they were both in the military. She was born in Tennessee but grew up in Texas and Arizona - a "military brat". She served and was stationed in "the South", while finishing her education. I ask her if she and Steve were "out there" (meaning "the South") during Katrina and she says "well, actually, we were at Keesler AFB, which is" and, before she can finish her sentence, I say "in Gulfport, MS at the end of Pass Road, next to 'The Joy Of Coffee'". She stops cold and slowly says ".... yessssss".

I show her my sweatshirt.

We spend the next hour talking like friends who have known each other for years. We know the same libraries and schools, the same roads and shortcuts, the same heart-breaking sights and heart-warming stories (even if they involve different families). In fact , she even knew the building I was in when I was sewing this sweatshirt. She remarks as she's gathering her up her things that I have no Mississippi accent and I tell her that I'm a native Californian ... a recent transplant. I was there just because I had to be there ... just like I moved from CA because I had to be here.

THAT is why I know I am where I am supposed to be today. And why I was supposed to take the path I did to get here. If I'd done any of it differently ... who knows what I would have missed out on?