Catholic Ragemonkey

How odd
If I were more paranoid than I am, I would have thought it was stalking. Today I joined a few priests for lunch at a great Vietnamese restaurant in Oklahoma City. As we were enjoying lunch I caught sight of a young lady sitting at a table by herself, clearly waiting for someone else to join her. She had some rather wild hair (at least as regards its bigness), tightly curled and very bushy. I say it was wild because it didn't at all appear natural, but clearly something she probably chose to do herself. She also had that -- I'm sorry folks, but I don't know how else to say this -- college liberal, front-row-of-some-leftward-leaning-organization-pep-rally look. I'm not saying she is that; I'm just describing the look (and, yes, looks can be deceiving). Anyway, eventually two guys joined her, looking equally non-conformist, but, oh so conformist in their non-conformity. Know what I mean, Dude?

After lunch, I drove several miles to meet up with Fr. Tharp at Starbucks. We enjoyed coffees and some conversation, as well as the normal round of mutual mocking and one-upmanship that tends to mark our relationship. [By the way, a side note here. When I arrived at Starbucks, Fr. Tharp had already been there for a few minutes and was enjoying his coffee. I ordered an espresso and looked over at Fr. Tharp as I said, "Let me guess, you got the pumpkin spice latte?" He confirmed my prediction by adding, "It's a classic, you know." I told him pumpkin spiced coffee was in no sense of the term a classic. He wouldn't even engage the argument. Now, what sort of person thinks pumpkin spiced lattes are classic coffee? I mean the next thing you know they are going to tell us that priests getting in dunk tanks is an insult to the dignity of the sacerdotal office and ... oh, wait a minute ... Nevermind!] So, as I was preparing to reverse out of my parking space in front of Starbucks, I glanced to my right and who is in the car parked next to me but the same lady, whom I had earlier seen in the restaurant. I thought that was rather weird. She managed to pull out ahead of me and drove off.

But that's not all. I pulled out of the shopping center housing Starbucks and got on the turnpike that loops the northern part of the city. I was driving for a few miles when lo and behold, the same young lady passes me on the highway! She had left the parking lot near Starbucks ahead of me, but was now passing me on the highway. I mean, what are the chances of that happening in a city the size of Oklahoma City. I am not trying to say OKC is NYC, but OKC is some 800,000+ people. It just seems rather odd to run into the same stranger that many times in such a brief span of hours.