Point of coincidence

When I was little, we used to drive up to my great-grandmother's house nearly
every weekend. We'd stay and my parents would talk with her, and I'd play in
the backyard by the creek [or "crik," depending upon your pronunciation].
Since the drive was only two hours or so, we were there fairly often.

There's one spot in the middle of the state that we drove by every time, a
field with at least three radio poles. At night they would be lit up, as radio
poles are, and when we'd drive by, my dad would always ask, "Do you remember
what that's called when they line up one behind another?" Being fairly young
at the time and not particularly caring about things like that, I'd reply,
"No." And my dad would always remind me, "That's called the point of
coincidence." And then I continued spacing off and dozing for the
remainder of the drive, and he kept driving. [Kind of reminds me of the time I
tried to spell 'knowledge' and got it wrong twice. Don't ask why I thought of
this. Random childhood thing.]

The reason I relate this tender anecdote is that my dad brought it up again
the other day. And I couldn't remember. But this time, I think I'll try to
keep that bit of knowledge, because you'll never know when it comes in handy.

Like the Christmas party that my mom threw on Tuesday night at our house for
her employees. [She's the lab manager of our local county hospital.] She
invited everyone over, and we had a potluck kind of gathering. [What is
it with me and potlucks lately? Sheesh.] Well, one of her employees is a
rather ditzy woman, but she's loads of fun. And she's also the mother of
someone I knew back in high school — someone I kind of had a crush on,
although I didn't realize it then. [To make matters more exciting, the guy she
was dating then was the same person I had a crush on in sixth grade. Oh, how
times change and irony flies.]

Anyway, my mom mentioned that I'll be going to Greece and Turkey in January,
and this woman said, "Oh, Jenna's going to Greece, too." And I, being my usual
curious self, asked when. "January." I gave her a small look of confusion and
said, "Really? When does she fly out?" "Oh, I don't know. Maybe on the 3rd."
Long conversation short, it turns out that Jenna will be in Greece for January
doing a nursing program.

Coincidence? I have no idea. After all, her mom's only worked for mine for
about two years. And I didn't even know that until Tuesday night.


Note: Boldface indicates my dad's use of his booming radio announcer
voice.