SYNCHRONICITY TO THE FUCKING NTH POWER

I very rarely experience something that I would want to conclusively attribute to that syrupy word "fate." I'm not religious. I believe in nature & science. That being said, I experienced a series of seemingly chance occurrences over a period of 24 hours that defy logical description. When I think about how many people live on this planet, and then about the events that unfolded, it almost makes my head explode. So here's what happened:

The day before I left for Manila I re-read my itinerary, making sure everything was tight. I noticed that on my return flight, the flight leg between Tokyo & Los Angeles had mysteriously vanished. I knew that I booked a solid round-trip flight with no gaps, so I got on the phone to see wtf was going on. The dude helping me was very polite, and kept putting me on hold, then coming back to explain what was happening. Turns out JAL had to cancel the flight from Tokyo, so he got with American Airlines to hook me up w/ a new flight. When everything was straight he said "So, I see you're going to Manila. Are you Filipino?" I said "No", and explained that I was doing an internship at an Ad agency for 10 weeks. "Well, you'll have a great time, especially in Makati." I explained that that was where I would be staying and working, and then he said "That's where I am right now." I said "so you're in Makati right now, and that's exactly where I'll be tomorrow, huh?"

He then says that I should have a tour guide while I'm there and he gives me his cell phone number. Tells me to call him up & he'll take me out for drinks. I told him I'd call him when I get in (still haven't done it yet, but I will.) After I got off of the phone with him I was thinking that coincidence was pretty crazy. It turns out that was only just the tip of the proverbial iceburg.

About 12 hours later I was in Narita Intl. airport in Tokyo. I hadn't received a boarding pass to the Tokyo/Manila leg of the trip, so I was waiting at the JAL counter. There was also another American guy waiting next to me, who also needed to get his boarding pass. He had a wicked stiff white trash mullet. It was like Ziggy Stardust era Bowie meets Nascar. He was asking me about my guitar (I brought it with me carry-on.) The lady at the counter asked us for our passports and then printed our boarding passes. She lays them down on the counter and when I first looked at them I thought she had made a mistake. I looked at mine, and then I saw his, and it had the same last name. I said "Your last name is Buchanan? MY last name is Buchanan." We both spent a few minutes doing the "WHOAH" thing. I have never met anyone in my life with my last name (that I'm not related to) and then here I am in an airport in Japan and it happens. Strange? Fuck yeah. But not nearly as strange as what was about to happen.

Of course, after this craziness with our names, we sat down together & started exchanging stories. I told Danny Ray (yeah) the story about the Orbitz dude that I randomly called in Makati from Miami, and he says "No shit???? My girlfriend that I'm going to visit in Manila is the supervisor of the Orbitz call center. She's probably that guy's boss."

At that point, my mind was completely blown. If I could have bought a lottery ticket at that moment I'm certain I would have hit the jackpot. But wait, there's more (if you can believe that)...

After we sat and tried to get our heads wrapped around that shit, he looks at his phone and says "Man, I told my phone company to get me Intl. service, but it's not working here. I hope this works in Manila."
At that point another American guy who was sitting across from us leans over with his phone up and says "You can buy a phone like this one on the street for $50 and it works everywhere in the country. That's your best bet."

We then struck up a conversation with the phone guy and Danny Ray asks him how safe he thinks Manila is. (This guy had already expressed the fact that he's visited a number of times.) "Oh, it's very safe" he says. "I feel safer walking around the streets of Manila than I do walking around the South Side of Chicago." I then said that I had lived in Chicago for a number of years. I asked where he lives, and he said "I'm actually from Rockford, so I live there now." I said "Ahhh, Rockford, the land of Cheap Trick." (Cheap Trick is one of my favorite bands) Then he says "Bun E. Carlos (Cheap Trick's drummer) is my cousin. I gave him his first drum set when we were teenagers."

As you can imagine, at that point I was feeling like I was in some kind of wrinkle in time or a twilight zone or something. Since arriving I've found out that the building where I'm working is also filled with call centers. There's a good chance that the first guy I talked to from Orbitz works in the same building as me. It's a wild world.