Happy happenstances
By Charles Slat
I could fill a book with the weird or odd coincidences that have characterized my many years of working at newspapers.
Today, one of those weird episodes happened.
I have been trying to connect with a source for the better part of three weeks. I don’t know this guy, but was told he could supply all the info I needed for an article. I made several calls to him over a period of a couple of weeks and left detailed messages. I left a message with his administrative assistant, just to make sure he still was alive.
About three days ago, he called me back — when I wasn’t in the office. He left a message that said I could contact him between certain hours the next day. The next day and the appointed hours came and I got his voicemail. I called back a bit later and got his voicemail again.
Today, I was in a day long meeting in the office. During a 10-minute break, I went to the bathroom, chatted with a co-worker for a few moments while there and then went briefly to my desk. The message light on my phone was blinking. I checked the voicemail and there was a message from another person I had call the day before. I hung up the phone, got out of my chair and started to walk down the hall back to my meeting. I heard my phone ring, stopped and turned around and answered it. It was the guy I had been trying to reach for three weeks. I got the info I needed. Only later did it occur to me that if we hadn’t had a meeting break at that particular time, if I had gone to the bathroom after checking my phone instead of before, if I had left my desk to return to the meeting 45 seconds sooner, I might once again have missed connecting with this guy. I mean, really, if you had tried to coreograph this ballet, it probably wouldn’t have been better timed. How weird.
By: Charles Slat
Posted: January 22nd, 2010 under Media.
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