Perfect Day

Today was one of those "perfect storm" days where everything sorta comes together in just the right way at just the right time. But in a good way. Actually, that may not be entirely accurate. It was more like one of those days where, if I think about it, it happens, combined with some perfect storm stuff. Whatever. It was an awesome day. Here's how it happened, and I swear this is all true:

Last night I was pondering home buying. I hadn't thought about it in awhile because house prices are so astronomical in Boulder. Guess I sorta gave up hope. Sure, I could buy a really sweet pad in Denver, even a nice cabin in the mountains. But I really don't want to live in a big city, and I'm not quite ready for a remote cabin because I need to finish grad school. And honestly I like being able to walk from home to the coffee shops, bars, restaurants and farmer's market and still be within walking distance of 100 miles of pristine mountain trails. Boulder really is an amazing place, so as long as I'm going to be tied to civilization for work and school I may as well enjoy it. Anyway, last night I seriously started thinking about my finances and organizing a long term strategy for acquiring something a bit more permanent in Boulder. Then I went to bed.

On the bus to work this morning I was thinking about a friend I hadn't seen in awhile. I was hungry and decided to stop at Whole Foods for a breakfast burrito. Guess who I bumped into at Whole Foods?

Half an hour later I get to my desk. My boss comes to me straight away and says, "We need to talk." We go to coffee and he tells me that I've been promoted to Scientist II and that, effective three days ago, I've been given a whopping 20% pay increase - the largest he'd ever seen in his 10 years at the lab. "Well this'll make home buying in Boulder a lot easier," I smiled.

Later I was attempting to focus on work (still buzzing about the promotion) when it occurred to me that I had applied last summer for a program we have at work whereby employees can get reimbursed for the previous year's health club dues. I hadn't heard anything since August. I contacted HR, and was told that, by odd coincidence, it was being direct deposited tomorrow with my paycheck. Strange that after three months I'd happen to think of it just hours before it was being deposited.

Shortly after that I struck up a conversation with a co-worker. He'd mentioned in the past that he needs a new home computer for his wife, an aspiring photographer. It came up again, and I started pushing hard for him to buy one of those hot new 27" iMacs. We talked about it a good 20 minutes, and despite his cheapness, I convinced him his wife was worth it. We went back to our desks. Five minutes later he comes over to me and says half jokingly, "Did you call my wife? She just this moment emailed me demanding to know when I was going to buy her a new computer!" I had not in fact called his wife.

After that, I texted my friend Elizabeth. Months ago she had mentioned wanting to buy an iPhone. For whatever reason it popped into my head so I texted her to ask if she'd ever gotten one. "Should be in the mail today!" she texted back. Seriously? This day was just getting too weird.

Then Mr. Masterson the farrier called just to see what was up, to invite me back for some more horseshoeing, and to see if I wanted to join him for various other activities in the coming weeks. Sure! Nothing odd about this, it was just a nice addition to the day.

At the bus stop this evening I was really hoping a particular friend and co-worker of mine would be there. She was. While we were talking, I kept looking over my shoulder to see if the bus was coming. I don't know why. I never do that. She even commented on it. Well suddenly the bus comes flying by. The driver hadn't noticed us. Fortunately I noticed him in time, and we all started jumping and waving our hands. He stopped, but we all had to run to catch him. I don't take credit for stopping him, but I swear it's like subconsciously I knew he was going to miss us. Only one other time in 3 years has that happened to me.

So I've got a debt for $3,000 that I soon need to pay. I get home and check the mail, and there's a letter. I've got an old retirement account from a past job, and last summer I contacted them to cash it out. I had no idea how much money was in it or when the check would arrive. It arrived today. Guess how much it was? Yep. Exactly. I had another letter too. My bank doubled my credit limit and cut my interest rate in half on my credit card.

So now I'm sitting here pondering the perfection of this day and the odd string of occurrences it contained. I've had equally odd bad days before, so maybe it doesn't mean anything. Maybe it is just coincidence. But divinely ordained or not, it's good to know that the bad days are balanced out by the wonderful ones.