Sugar, Ah Honey, Honey, You Are My Candy Girl, And You've Got Me Wanting You

--"Sugar, Sugar" (cover), Mary Lou Lord with Semisonic

Serendipity is a funny concept for me because it seems my life is flush with it. Part of the reason why I write on this site is to chronicle just exactly how strange life sometimes is for me. Events, places, and especially people have a habit of becoming motifs in my life without my realizing it. One minute I'm remembering how a certain anecdote with one of my friends when, a few weeks later, something totally superfluous to the original conversation will bring up the subject again. That's why I think of life as something resembling close to Quantum Leap's balled up string theory, where every moment in one's life can and often does intersect every other moment in that same life.

It's my belief that even my smallest actions have repercussions that I cannot possibly forsee. More to the point, these repercussions would make no sense were I to be explained exactly how that one decision will inevitably change the course of my life. For example, in 1995 I bought an innocuous album called Saturday Morning Cartoon's Greatest Hits because I was always a big fan of Saturday morning cartoons and an album full of current band covering the theme songs sounded like a no-brainer to me. As I began to listen to the album more and more, one song struck an especially resonant chord with me. "Sugar, Sugar" by Mary Lou Lord with Semisonic not only became my favorite song on the album, she instantly became a singer who I wanted to get to know better. The following week after getting that album I bought the only CD I could find of hers, the eponymous Mary Lou Lord EP.

Ten years later and she has become the premier singer-songwriter for me. Any album she ever puts on, any show I can attend, I lap it up. In my eyes that woman can do no wrong when it comes to music.

Yet to this day it still spooks me that, had I not thought the idea of rock stars covering cartoon theme songs hilarious, I may have never heard her in the first place. The initial purchase was so spur of the moment, I very much could have gone the other way and thought the whole idea frivolous. I was this close to losing out on being inspired by a great talent.

I tell you that small anecdote to tell you this development. In 1991 I got lost at Epcot Center. That story in itself was a memorable piece of my history. Not only was it the only time I have ever been separated from the people taking care of me for more than six hours, but it was also the first time that I ever met, knew, and said good-bye to someone I wanted to know all in the same day. I mean--I've met plenty of people I've been introduced to by friends or family, but Brandy was the first person that felt like a complete span of a friendship in the course of a day. She was Celine to my Jesse. It was a random encounter that I've never forgotten even though, from the outside, it didn't appear to be much of anything.

Flash forward to September 15th, 2006 and I'm checking my e-mail when I find this curious note there:

Dear Patrick,

You're probably wondering who this is. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure why I'm writing this. I was directed to your site by a friend of mine who browses blogs, something I never do. She was struck by the similarity in a story about getting lost at Disneyworld you posted a year ago and the story along the same lines I told her in confidence one evening. Weeks later she told me of her discovery and asked if I had ever kept in touch with you (if it is the same you, which I'm thinking it is). I told her no. That's when she suggested I go ahead and read the story and see if it made sense with my version.

Well, I did and it does.

I'm not sure what to expect here. I'm not sure what I'm after. Frankly, it's more of a curiosity factor than anything else that is prompting me to contact you. Personally, I'm hoping it's you. You, indeed, did a kind thing for me once and I've been curious to see whatever become of you. Now, after reading some of your stories, I can see for myself.

I'm attaching a picture of myself to jog your memory.



So let me know if I'm correct in my assumptions. Write back or don't, it's your choice. But it would be amazing if it's true we finally found each other after about fifteen years. It might even be some kind of record.

Brandy P.

P.S. - Write me back here at this e-mail address. It's not my personal one, but I do check it. I wanted an alternative place to write from in case I'm way off the mark and you're wondering who exactly I am. If it turns out I'm correct, I'll send my real e-mail.

I don't know if it's her, but it sure sounds like her. Plus, the way my life goes, I wouldn't be surprised if she joins the ever-growing list of people like DeAnn, Jina, and Breanne who, at one time, I thought I would never hear from again and who suddenly decided to find me out of the blue. This whole time I was sure I hadn't made as big of an impression on her as she did on me, that she had forgotten the whole incident.

It turns out doing nice things does come back to you somehow. People forget about all of the thousand times they've been slighted in their life, but the times when people actually do something from the heart as one person helping out another person in trouble, those are the times that people remember. And, as aforementioned in the opening of this post, serendipity and me just go hand-in-hand. I truly believe, if anyone else had helped her out that day, she would have never found her guy. It's only because I put myself out there, leave myself open all over the internet, that people can find me so easy. Yes, I still think there is a level of randomness involved in my re-connecting with all these people after all these years.

But the truth is this has been part of the reason why I write here and why maintain a myspace site, so that people who I want to find me, can. It may be chance that these people stumble upon me, but it isn't chance that some of them end up becoming fixtures in my life.

It's just like the record. It may have been cartoons that led me to discovering Mary Lou Lord, but it's my wanting to keep her in my life that led me to doing just that.

Will Brandy take her place among this echelon?

I guess the answer is we'll just have to wait and see...

Yours Swimmingly,
mojo shivers