Serendipity

Sometimes, I call it wanderlust. At other times, I name it loneliness. Whatever it was, I felt it today after meeting a friend in Eastwood. Instead of taking a cab home, I got dropped off at Greenhill's Promenade. My official excuse was to check out the bookstore. But if I were to be more honest with myself, it's because I was hoping I'd run into someone familiar. It was me tempting fate. More often than not, it works: I'd meet someone from my alma matter, a friend of a friend, or perhaps an acquaintance over the Internet.

Perhaps one of the more memorable ones was a few years ago in Power Books. Somebody was looking through the shelves of the fantasy/science-fiction genre and there was this buzzing in my head that I should know this person. I've never seen her face before, and I was confident with my memory about that fact. Of course I've also met a lot of friends online, people I chat with yet I've never seen in real life. It's surprising how much you can tell about a person depending on the books they're looking at, or what they're carrying, or what they actually purchase. Suffice to say, the said stranger was the sister of an online friend (again, whom I've never actually met in real life, at least not until that day). I actually got the courage to talk to her, although right now I don't really remember what my actual words were. It certainly wasn't a pick-up line or anything of that sort. But apparently it worked. Too bad I don't remember or I would have used it more often.

And then there are other times when I'm looking for someone more specific. Take my crush for example. My "stalker sense" simply tingles, and I go to a certain place such as a bookstore, and viola, I see her there. But then again, that's not really surprising since the women I fall for usually shares the same interests as me.

Today though wasn't one of those days. I was at Fully Booked, partially hoping to see someone familiar. All I ended up was buying a couple of books. But it wasn't a total loss. Apparently, the 40% discount Fully Booked gives to birthday celebrants was only implemented just recently (i.e. this month). It's quite timely as it'll be my birthday in a few weeks. And I actually spent a lot today. Here's what I bought:

Promise of the Witch-King by R.A. Salvatore
Shaman's Cross by Robin Hobb
The Riddle-Master's Game by Patricia McKillip
The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford
Replay by Ken Grimwood