It was Tuesday July 13 2010 and to tell you about it, I have to go to Monday the 12th, I worked at the bank, I was supposed to work from 9:15 to 6:15, at night around 8 pm, I was supposed to have two students to teach them Arabic till 10 pm. Yes I wasn't crazy about Mondays, but this is how I make money. One of my students whom I teach on other days called me and asked me for a lesson on Monday, I told her I could squeeze her between the bank and my other two students whom I called and asked if I could push them till 8:45 pm. Everything worked out fine, I had a long day with only 20 minutes lunch break. At night I had salad before bed and went to bed close to midnight to wake up next morning and take mom to a market that was pretty far away from where we live.
When I woke up on Tuesday morning, I had an awful back pain, but I heard Mom telling my sister on Skype that we will take off shortly to that market, I didn't have the heart to tell her that I was in pain, also I usually work out at the gym first thing in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I thought I shouldn't risk a work out now with that pain, maybe I should wait till the evening and see if I recover.
So I asked Mom what time she would prefer to take off. We decided to take off then and there, but as she was saying goodbye to my sister, the door bell rang, I sarcastically said "Excuse us, we have visitors" I was 100% sure it was some kind of marketing, but it wasn't. Our downstairs neighbor came up to tell me that the roof in his kitchen was leaking water. Come to find out that it was the pipe under the kitchen sink and everything under that pipe was soaking wet. I immediately called the apartment manager to send someone, they said they wouldn't be able to send a plumber before Wednesday noon. I said please try to find someone faster than that, I have things in the sink, we have people coming over for lunch, I need to use the sink. They said that they'll try another plumber and call me.
So then, a change of plan, we couldn't go to the market, we couldn't leave our place and it was such a beautiful day after a whole week of overcast weather and occasional rain, in July.
Now, I wasn't meant to go to the gym or to the market, so I decided to take a walk with mom in the Palisades Park, so that if they called, I'm home in 10 minutes. We took the playing cards, some tea and snacks, and off we went. The place we usually go to was full of elderly people from some organization that day. We were not able to sit at any table, everything was taken, so we kept on walking to the north end of the park, a place we have never hung out at before. There were plenty of tables and benches. We settled down and started a new game.
The game we play is a French game, we have been playing that game for two months now, and I won 7 games and mom won one. She said that she was going to win that day, and she even put the score as 7 to 2 instead of 7 to 1. As we were playing, she kept on winning, huh? and at one point she said, we should play the lottery today, I said sure, she said I'm not kidding, every card that I wished to have, I got. So now I wish to play the lottery. Now mind you I don't believe in those things, but I said okay, we'll play the lottery. While we were there, again, a place we never hang out at, my realtor happened to be there taking a walk, he doesn't live anywhere close by, but was showing a house and was done early so he decided to take a walk. He saw us so he came by. I asked him about the house he was showing and it turned out to be a gorgeous house worth $ 3 millions. When he left, I said to mom, what are the chances of running into my realtor and she said maybe it's time for You to buy a house, after we win the lottery. And as we played more, she kept on getting surprised how every card she asked for, she got.
Long story even longer, we had to go to the third street promenade and play the lottery. We always play ONE ticket, I mean the odds are great whether you play 100 tickets or one, it takes one lucky set of numbers. But as we were there, I don't know how or why or even where did this idea come from but I suggested to mom to also play the Mega (another game we NEVER play usually) since she was feeling lucky that day. well guess what, she did.
So let me recap, I woke up with a back pain, I was supposed to be at the gym, we were supposed to leave to the market, but everything happened to keep us in Santa Monica that Tuesday Morning, and to take us to withdraw couple of lottery tickets from a certain place, at a certain time, this was NOT a coincidence, it was meant to happen that way. And sure enough….
That day was one of our luckiest days………. ever
because
And I can't believe I'm really sharing that in a blog, and I promise so many people that when I win, I'll share, and I keep this promise and I'm sharing...
we
did NOT win the lottery
But it was an assurance to us that we are meaning making machines that attach some kind of meaning to everything that happens in our lives
