Monday Moment #29

So, a couple of days ago I got my hair cut. You know, you sit in the chair and blah-de-blah-de-blah with the person cutting and styling. Sometimes small talk, sometimes more personal. But you never know what you'll really get to talking about during that particular visit.

I started in the salon with Kai (the girl who puts pretty streaks of color in my hair). As we were chatting it up, she mentioned to me that Lauren (the girl who would be cutting my hair) was getting married soon. Naturally, that conversation came up when I got into Lauren's chair. Where that conversation would take me took me completely by surprise. I simply asked if she was getting married in the area or somewhere else. And her response was that they were but it was hard to decide to do that or get married in Montana where she grew up.

Well, many of you have gotten to know me and know I, too, grew up in Montana. So, of course, my eyebrows and voice octave raised as I said, "I did,too."

"Where at?" she asked.

"Livingston," I said thinking she would probably know it.

But her reaction was, "No way!"

Then we experienced an awkward moment of looking at one another, sizing up each other's ages, wondering if maybe we could have gone to school together. She mentioned she thought I looked familiar when we first met. But, I am most certainly older than her. However, we know many of the same places and same people and she went to school with a whole load of my cousins. Not only that, but Livingston is a place we each return every Fourth of July (almost!).

A fun surprise. A fun coincidence. A fun it's-a-small-world experience. We all have them, and so can our characters. The tricky part...how not to make it feel contrived.

Does your character experience a surprise or it's-a-small world experience?

P.S. Tomorrow's post will be related. (I guess now I'm on the hook and I'd better write it, huh?)