Allow me to set up the scene for you. On Friday night April 15th, Rachel, (a friend of mine) and I were attending an event at Henry’s Swing Bar in River North, Chicago. The event was hosted by another friend of mine and was located in the basement, which is also known as the Rec Room. The music unfortunately was obnoxiously loud, and without earplugs, I had to get out of there immediately. Rachel and I then moved upstairs for a drink. Rachel then received a text from her friend inviting us to the nearby Studio Paris club. However because my ears were feeling extremely sensitive, I politely declined the invitation, insisting instead that she should go without me.

Soon after, we finished our drinks and headed out. I waved goodbye to Rachel as she darted out across the street, and I continued West on Hubbard towards Clark St to catch the bus home. I got to Clark St only to realize that it’s a one-way and I would have to go over to State St to catch the bus home. Ugh. I turned around to head back to State St. Upon arriving at the bus stop on Hubbard and State, I checked the next bus arrival time via text, only to read that the bus was no longer in service for the night.

It was only a little after 1 a.m. but I am almost never in River North at night or even the North Side, so how I was supposed to know this? Frustrated, weighing out my options of taking a Lyft home, Divy, or the L, I decided to go with the L since it was right in front of me. Mind you I was wearing heels, another thing I hardly do anymore, so my feet were killing me. I walked into the Grand Red Line station, tapped my card, and ran down the stairs because I could not wait to sit down on a bench.

When I saw the first bench, I noticed there were people sitting down, but I had long stopped caring who was there because I needed to sit-down, after all that time in my heels. As I walked closer I began to recognize the faces that were sitting down on the first bench and felt myself screaming, “OMG!”

IT WAS NATALIE, a dear friend of mine from Pittsburgh whom I studied abroad with in London and even shared the same student-apartment complex as. We literally met in Shoreditch, East London! Natalie happened to be in town visiting her best-friend from high-school, whose birthday it was.

Natalie had told me previously that she was visiting Chicago. But due to her commitments for the weekend, I knew that I was not going to be able to see her. This was totally understandable, since I had seen her over the summer anyway. So running into her, when I never take the red line home, in fact the last time I had even taken the L home was over a year ago, was absolutely insane.

Thankfully the L was delayed heavily, so we had about 20 minutes to talk and snap a photo. We just couldn’t stop hugging each-other in disbelief that I had walked up on her and her friends from high-school whom I had also met the last time she was in Chicago. We both agreed that it was the universe and laws of attraction that led us together. Thinking about how initially I had no intention of taking the L home and had already walked all over Hubbard Street to catch the bus. Or even the fact that Natalie and I had met in London and she was just visiting, and happened to be leaving Three Dots In A Dash probably around the time I had left Henry’s, continues to blow my mind.

This isn’t luck people. This wasn’t a crazy coincidence. It was The Secret.

LOVE YOU NATALIE COME VISIT ME SOON!
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