Bubbles

Sometimes, little things happen that make me wonder if life is a series of meaningless coincidences that you learn to take advantage of, or if it is full of free-floating bubbles bursting little miracles.

A few days ago, I visited a friend who had been in a car accident. She's fine and recovering at her sister's home. I wanted to bring her a bottle of wine. Not being a drinker, I didn't know what kind to get. I went into the liquor store, looked around mindlessly, and randomly picked up a bottle of New Zealand white wine. I don't even remember the name of it right now, but I was in and out of the store within five minutes.

When I gave her the bottle, she said, "How did you know this is my favourite wine?"

"Get out, you know this wine?"

"Yes, because it's my favourite. I just went to the liquor store and got a bottle. That's what I'm drinking right now." So she took the opened bottle out of the fridge to show me. Indeed, it was the same wine that I brought.

I am one of those slovenly laptop users who eat and drink by their computer. I replaced the key board on my last laptop twice. I opted not to replace the keyboard a third time when some of the keys started to fall off and I was left with little nubs to press into when I typed. I could see and feel food crumbs between the keys.

But now I have a new laptop. I didn't want it to suffer the same ailments of dirty board and unhinged keys. Yet, I can't not eat at my laptop. What to do?

Then for no reason, The Man and I walked into a computer store. I walked straight to the counter where a model of my laptop was on display. Only, on this model, there was a plastic cover over the keys to protect the board. I decided immediately I wanted that same cover for my laptop. I said to the salesman, "What's that? I want that cover. Why is it on the key board?"

He said, "It's to protect food and drink from spilling into your keyboard. And it doesn't interfere with use of the keys." How is it that such a keyboard cover should make itself known to me just when I needed one?

Then we went to a birthday dinner for my nephew, Kid1. The Man chose a book called The Dangerous Book For Boys for his present. I thought some of the suggestions in the book were perfect experiments for him. My niece, Kid2, saw the book and said, "I gave him the exact same book." Sis said indeed she had given him a pocket version of the same book. How is it that this little 7-year-old girl and The Man both arrived at the same conclusion this was the perfect book for Kid1?

I found out over dinner Kid1 is reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid. That was the other book I had in mind for him. I started reading it in the store, loved it, and knew he would like it too. I even engaged in discussion of the book with him a little, like offering that Rodrick is the wimpy kid's brother. Now that he has confirmed he likes the book, I will get the second installation for him for Christmas. A third comes out January 2009. So even if he somehow gets to the second volume before Christmas, I can still pre-order the third.

What's going on?