Serendipitous

( ) Pronunciation Key (srn-dp-t)

1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.
2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.
3. An instance of making such a discovery.

Around this time last week I headed downtown to an orientation for my latest pet project. As I emerged from the 59th Street Columbus Circle subway station I noticed a stylish woman waiting on the island for the light to change. She reminded me of my friend Diva A so I softly called her name, nonchalantly so I wouldn't embarrass myself. After about the third try the woman turned around and sure enough it was Ms. Diva. She had changed her look again, which she does often since she works as a model. We had actually been trying to connect for a couple of months through voicemail and email. We embraced and crossed the street walking and talking quickly since we were both late for our respective appointments. When I informed her where I was headed she told me that she is going the same place and we picked up the pace to a near run, her in her stiletto boots and me in flats, we maneuvered our way through the crowds dodging the grates in the sidewalk and the strollers who obviously weren't running as late as we were. We reached the next corner and Diva stopped to buy a banana to eat the rest of the way to our destination.

We finally made it there about 10-15 minutes late and hadn't missed anything. We went through the orientation and decided that we both wanted to go through with the classes that were being offered. On the way out we were stopped by a couple of gentlemen who were also in the orientation. We all introduced ourselves and exchanged our excitement for future projects we planned to work on. On the way out, one of the gentlemen was going our way and we all walked towards Broadway to catch a cab heading back uptown. He was a disc jockey on a popular local radio station which was quite interesting to Diva since her next project is to work on developing her singing skills. We finally managed to catch a cab and the three of us piled in. Mr. DJ offered to take us to a nearby spot for Margaritas and Diva graciously accepted his offer.

We wound up at Car.ne. We went into the restaurant and apparently Mr. DJ is a regular because all the staff knew him by name. He guided us straight ahead towards the bar area but all the seats at the bar were taken. Diva spotted a couple getting up from a nearby table and suggested that we sit there. Mr. DJ hesistated but relented. After the busboy cleared off the table we all sat and Diva went into action. First she couldn't decide what she wanted to drink. The waiter, who was extremely patient, kept coming over to check on us. Diva informed Mr. DJ that she doesn't really drink much. After the waiter came to take our order for about the fifth time, Mr. DJ ordered himself a margarita. I ordered a Mojito and after a while Diva finally decided to order a Mango Margarita with a half salt. She took one sip of the drink and proclaimed "I shouldn't have ordered this." Mr. DJ asks if she doesn't like it because she can get something else but Diva refused and nursed the drink all night.

Throughout the course of the night, Ms. Diva indecisively looked over the menu and managed to manipulate Mr. DJ into spending more than he thought he was going to that night. She eventually ordered a cheese plate, crab cake appetizers (which I highly recommend!) and her fingers deftly moved further down the menu. Mr. DJ got concerned because he could see that Ms. Diva was ready to order from each section of the menu. Eventually DJ called the chef over and he made something special off the menu for Ms. Diva. It wound up being an appetizer size steak that was medium-well and quite good. Mr. DJ ordered a French Onion Soup for himself since he was suffering from a sore throat. Before the night was over Diva had also ordered two or three rounds of tequila shots. When the bill came, Mr. DJ was quite upset as it was close to $100. Diva wound up putting in part of the bill since she couldn't coax Mr. DJ into footing the whole bill and she wouldn't take my offer to pay towards it. By that point she had turned into Whit.ney Houston and kept doing her Whitney impersonation "it works, it works for me." * So Diva offers to pay the tip and DJ says, "If we are going out I'm going to make you pay half. She says okay. Then she tried to gyp the waiter out of his tip after he had been so patient and the chef made her a special dish! That was were DJ drew the line and he starting turning into Bob.by trying to control a naughty Whit.ney. Just to keep the peace she went ahead and left a proper tip.
Our trio stumbled out onto Broadway, satiated and probably a little more tipsy than we thought we were. Mr. DJ, apparently somewhat of a celeb in his neighborhood, had to stop and talk to everyone. Diva offered to walk him home with the hopes of getting upstairs to fool with his Baldwin piano. No such luck. Although there was no ring on the finger, there certainly appeared to be another woman in the background. Mr. DJ keeps a house upstate and an apartment in the city. His phone also rang incessantly the whole time we were out. Mr. DJ popped us into a cab heading uptown and made Diva promise to call him when she got in. On the cab ride home, Diva stated, "I bet he didn't think just saying hello was going to cost him $100." She went on to add that he actually got off cheap since the stripper chicks who he was probably used to dealing with would have stuck him for more than that. Diva lives only a few blocks from me, so the cabbie dropped her first and then took me to my door. For a $10 cab ride, I had a nice night of good food and drinks, laughs galore, and diva training 101. If that isn't serendipitous I don't know what is. It works...it works for me!

Edited:I discovered that there is truly six degrees of separation in this city. The chef of the restaurant is actually the boss of a really nice guy I recently met at another orientation I attended a couple of weeks ago. Small world in a big city!