It Must Be Karma

I stopped in the arcade yesterday, blew a buck on a couple games of Skee-Ball.  (That's right; fifty cents a game.  And it was one of those 7-ball games, not 9.)  I did, however, manage one of the best games of Skee-Ball in my life, and walked away with 32 whole redemption tickets.

For which I could get, like, three pieces of candy or three tiny little plastic toys.  

When standing at the redemption counter thinking that I neither want nor need any of those items, a little boy came up and was redeeming his tickets for some little plastic dudes out of the bin of little plastic dudes.  I handed his mother my tickets, figuring he would enjoy the three extra dudes.  She said, "What for?" when I gave her the tickets, as though my giving up a coupla pieces of Laffy Taffy was a totally inexplicable move.  Random generosity, lady -- I just enjoyed having a good game of Skee-Ball, and your kid actually likes the cheap-ass ten-ticket prizes.  I smiled and she figured it out.

Fast forward to today.  After leaving the area where I accidentally met Bart Simpson (there was a nice bench to rest on in the sun -- it happened to be on the "wait here to meet Bart" side of a stanchion) I walked a few blocks, checking out restaurants to find a place to grab lunch.  And after I'd selected my food of choice and was about to walk in, I realized I was carrying one thing too few.  Had my purse, my raincoat, and my umbrella.  The fleece jacket I'd slung on my arm (with the raincoat) had made a break for it.

I know I had it at the Bart bench.  I either left it there, or, what was more likely, it had slipped off the raincoat along the way.  I considered my options of "retrace my steps" or "lost and found."  It was fairly recently lost, so I decided to go with Plan A.

OK, a 180 then.  I'd come down here; then make a left; then around this corner; then...  Hey!  There's my jacket -- someone had gently laid it down on the side of a planter at about eye-height.  It was impossible to miss, if you were looking for it.  Which I clearly was.  Thank you, stranger!

Picked it up and went on my merry way.  I assumed this was some sort of payback for giving the kid my Skee-Ball tickets.