I left work on Friday and it was pouring rain. It was wretched. I went out to wait for the 7. Every part of me was soaking wet. I could feel the water pooling in the crevasses of my hoodie, the tops of my boots, and the inner workings of my ears. It had been a long time since I'd been that wet. After 30 minutes of waiting in God's vengeance the 7 finally arrived. As I boarded the bus I could tell I wasn't the only one left in the rain. The heat was blaring and the humidity was nearly unbearable. Everyone on the bus looked just as miserable as I did. As I was lamenting my position I got a phone call from Nick. We spoke for a little while and made plans to watch a movie. He had asked me if he should bring a movie, which I confirmed by saying, "Once I get home and dry myself out I'm not going anywhere in this."
The woman in front of me overheard this and turned around to give me a high five. I wrapped up my phone call quickly and started up a conversation with the woman. She told me about how she was regretting her decision to go out and get a gift for a friends baby shower. We exchanged hateful words about the weather and then she began to tell me a story.
Some three weeks prior she had noticed that her bus pass was missing. This was a huge problem being as her arthritis had recently placed her on disability and her fixed income didn't allow for unexpected expenses. However without her pass she'd been having to pay the fare for each ride. So in the last three weeks she'd been searching like crazy to find her pass, with no luck. Now as she was planning her trip downtown to buy a present she decided that she would take the 7 instead of the 106. She hadn't taken the 7 in weeks, but something made her decide to on that day.
She boarded the bus and sat down. Not five minutes later a young man boarded the bus. Upon seeing her he got slightly excited and sat beside her. "I just knew I'd see you again," he said. "I'm sorry have we met before," she replied. "Only briefly. We met on this bus a few weeks ago. Just after you got off I realized that you dropped this.." He then pulled her regional disabled bus pass from his jacket with her picture on it. She could hardly contain herself. She was so grateful.
As she was relaying this story to me she said something along the lines of: "It's just so nice to see. Now I'm not sure if I believe in God but I tell you, there is some higher power out there. These kinds of things don't just happen. And it was a YOUNG person nonetheless. I'm just so happy to see that there is still some good in this world." I replied, "There's always been good out there. It just gets harder to find with every day." At this time we were pulling up the stop at 4th and Jackson, where I had to get off. I thanked the woman for sharing her story with me and got off the bus. The rain was coming down hardest yet. Strange thing was that this time it felt more like a baptismal than a punishment...
Saturday night I met PMRob for dinner. After dinner I expected to go home for a quiet evening but PMRob had other ideas. We went to King's for a beer. The scene was a madhouse so we bailed. Went to the Stepping Stone. Great little place. They had live music and good ales. From there he insisted that we continue one our journey and we went to Copper Gate. Swanky little place. I'd go back, but it would definitely have to be with the right group of people. Now at this point I was completely done with the evening, unfortunately it wasn't done with me. We crossed the street and headed up to the Viking, apparently I was having a vitamin R deficiency. We drank the pitcher of Rainier and I ended up talking to this really chill guy from Germany. We talked for a while about skiing and other such nonsense. The bartender made the announcement for last call and I'd realized that I was out too late. This however still wasn't the end. PMRob convinced me that we had to go back to 7-11 and get some Rainiers to drink while we hit up the wii bowling at my place. 
However on the way home from 7-11 I found a phone, Blackberry 8900, just sitting on the sidewalk undamaged. I picked it up. I'd thought of getting one many times in the past but decided against it for financial reasons. After picking up the phone I looked through the recent calls and without even thinking about it called the last number to see if I could determine the phones rightful owner. I called the last three numbers with no answer. Then I started poking around and found the Facebook app on his phone. This identified the man as Rodney and I was able to send him a message over FB. However that would be meaningless as the phone rang. It flashed the name Stanley as it vibrated. I answered it. A voice on the other end said, "So you made it home Jeff?" This kind of freaked me out at first. Mostly because in some ways I am a Jeff. I recollected my thoughts and replied, "No, I'm not sure he did. I found this phone on the sidewalk." "Well I'd say thats not a good sign at all." "I'd say so." "See this isn't Jeff's phone either. He was keeping it safe for a friend of mine. Is it possible for me to meet with you tomorrow to get the phone back?" "Yeah no problem. Just call me tomorrow at this number."
I then spent the next hour explaining the PMRob the situation with the phone. It was a little complicated and he was struggling to understand all the players in this scene. "So you have Stanley's phone?" "No I have Rodney's phone." "Ok, so who's Jeff? And why are you talking to Stanley?" It went on for some time like that. We were up till nearly 5am bowling and drinking and trying to figure out all the pieces.
I woke up Sunday morning and the phone had been ringing off the hook from a variety of different numbers. I finally connected with Stanley who promptly came and picked up the phone. Later that I day I got a call from Rodney. I guess he wants to buy me dinner. It's not a new phone, but I'll take a free dinner for doing the right thing any day...
As I passed through the warehouse this morning they were playing the Beatles. This pleased me greatly...
