A Free Drink

One of those totally unplanned happy event  “if I hadn’t gone there, I wouldn’t have met this old friend” days……. COOL!

I remembered late today that I had been given a ticket for a free drink at my choice of a variety of places, and that ticket expired TODAY! So, I set off to check out my first choice, to see if it was still open, and arrived to see that no, it was not. I saw the time and my heart sank.

Anyway, I decided to try another place. No, it was closed too. Grrr! Why had I waited so long?

Another place……nope, closed. It was supposed to be a Starbucks, but in fact wasn’t. My google maps had led me there. Right address, wrong place. What next?!

I saw three other places I knew on my list but they were really quite far away to just go for a free drink. So I tried to find one last place. No, that was also CLOSED!

Well, I decided to try one of the other the other two Starbucks I knew in the area. This one was OPEN! I walked in and held out my coupon, asking “Will you honour this?” The lady smiled and said “Sure we will!” I explained about Google sending me to the wrong place and she understood. She recognized the coupon from the volunteer agency.

So, I ordered a chai tea latte. Was that to be herbal or regular? I had never had the herbal one, so I decided to give it a try. DELICIOUS!!!

I was going to go home then, but as I was driving by the A&W I had the urge to buy a meal there with some of my earnings from dog walking. A treat!

Went in. Ordered my food. Scanned the place quickly for any familiar faces. Nope. Not one.

Sat down and got ready to eat, and that’s when it happened. I recognized someone I thought might be a friend going out the door. I called the friend’s name, questioningly. The friend answered with my name also as a question. Yes! We knew each other and had not met for the longest time! Wow!

My friend and former colleague came and sat down. Stories and photos were shared. Lives were caught up in the time it took to eat a hormone/steroid free beef burger and some sweet potato fries. It was an enjoyable visit! Quite lovely!

It was time to say goodbye, with a promise to visit sometime again. I smiled on the way home, thinking how easily that might never have happened if I had decided not to bother pursuing the free drink so late in the evening, and not gone into that A&W to eat.

I like to think God knows it all and all is in His hands….that there is nothing by chance or by accident…..that these moments of serendipity are by design and not out of chaos. Such things make me feel loved and cause me to smile.

All because of an almost expired free drink ticket 😉

AJ ❤