The Long and Short of It

Thursday was the best weird day since I moved to California. I was having a quiet post-Indpendence Day, first the gym and then some errands. At the car wash, I saw a mom with her daughter, and, and at the counter with her back to me, what looked like another daughter, about three feet tall, as well as a pixie-cute puppy with dark eyes that looked like a stuffed animal. The girl at the counter was talking to the dog in a high-pitched voice. She seemed to have thick legs for a girl that young. Then I got to the counter and turned, and saw that it was Debbie Lee Carrington, a fortysomething "little person" actress with sparkling blue eyes who has appeared in the Seinfeld episode "The Stand-In," as well as many other films and television programs. We spoke, and I asked her about her puppy. She said that the "puppy" was 14 years old. They say that dog owners tend to look like their pets, and in this case, looks were deceiving as to both.

Then, I went to the bank, which was not too close to the car wash. They are barely in the same neighborhood. As I pulled into a parking space, a very sexy-looking woman in a cowboy hat started directing me in. She was getting into the back seat of the car next to mine, but stood by my door. When I exited, she grabbed my arm very flirtatiously and told me that I should have trusted her to pull in closer. Then I saw a familiar car with a familiar puppy-looking dog in the parking lot. There in the bank was Debbie again. I began to laugh at the weird but good energy that was starting to pile up.

Then I went to the next errand, at another store. While I was holding up drinking glasses to the store window to check their condition, I saw a very tall, thin guy wandering around outside, talking on a hands-free cell phone. He turned, and I saw that it was David Hasselhoff. Fortunately, there were no burgers or beers in sight.

I decided to stay out a bit longer, just to see what other weird, funny thing might happen. And another one did. At the gas station, the woman at the pump next to mine began talking to me. There was something odd about her, especially in the way she started in mid-conversation rather than exchanging some kind of introductions or pleasantries first. She looked a bit disheveled, but I have made that mistake before. Sure enough, I took a look at her car, and it was a late model Audi. Then, just a few minutes after meeting her and without exchanging names or any other personal information, she invited me to take a train trip with her. She said that she was putting together a train journey to New Orleans to help build homes there, and that she had already spoken to "the money people" and the project was a go. I wished her good luck and finally headed home.

It was one of those days where either I or the universe, or both, put out some strange energy in a successful plot to make me shake my head and smile.