NVS19 Aug 2026 - Serendipity

I’ve written about this situation before, but it was a long time ago. That post is fairly well trashed (see If Only if you need to see what I mean) and the focus of that post was somewhat different. So I’m hitting that event again, and hoping to get BONUS theme points. Read on to see why.

It was the summer of 1989. I was sent to Atlanta to provide coverage to one of our customers while their assigned rep was on vacation for two weeks. I’d been to the location several times before so knew what hotel to book. Nice rooms, pool, bar – the choice was a no-brainer.

One particular steamy Saturday I had to go out the flight line to assist in resolving an issue. By the time I was done and got down to the pool the place was packed! Delta Airlines HQ was just down the street. Those were boom times in the airline industry. Delta had a dormitory to use for their flight attendant trainees, but it was completely full. A portion of the (largely young and female) trainees were had been booked at the same hotel as me. Now I know what BJ said about keeping illustrations to a minimum, but how could I not illustrate that situation?

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It WAS an amazing serendipitous event after all. What could ever top it?

Needless to say, finding a place to sit was a challenge for me that day. I finally found a spot off on a corner of the deck. Not really a good place to be able to view all that was going on, but...Serendipity #2 – the spot was right next to a quite attractive mature lady.

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AGAIN – how could I not illustrate that? She seemed to genuinely to enjoy the attention I gave her, especially in view of all the “competition” that was around.

We went out of dinner that night, drinks and dancing in the hotel bar afterwards, then up to my room. Our adventures apparently did not escape the notice of the “young stuff” flight attendants. I endured some gentle teasing about the situation from them the next day at the pool. Comments like “Where is your girlfriend?” and “Are you going to pay attention to US now?”

The remainder of my stay was quite boring in comparison. My friend checked out of the hotel that Sunday morning and went on her way, the trainees were back in class, and I was out at the airport most of the day. But as serendipity goes I’d say that was a decent 18 or so hours.

Would you agree with that claim?
How could it have been any better?
Only two illustrations is “a minimum”, don’t you agree? To those that say they added nothing to the story, I’d point out that overlooks the joy I experienced from hunting them down! 😁