Good Karma

I probably used all mine up yesterday.

Arun, Kristine, Atsu and I decided to visit the Domain (an outdoor mall) by bus, but as luck would have it, we got off on the wrong stop. We ended up walking something like two miles in the hot sun before we arrived. It's a nice place; lots of fountains, ridiculously expensive stores, and of course a Starbucks and Borders (I bought an OK GO cd). Unfortunately, the closest bus stop for the ride home was a little under a mile away. Arun had a fast enough pace to make it there in time, but the rest of us were still on the other side of the street waiting to cross when the bus pulled up and turned down the road. He tried asking the bus driver to wait a minute, but as we were running up the street the bus pulled away, poor Arun throwing up his hands in futility.
Before we could even bemoan this new turn of bad luck, a minivan pulled up beside us, a mother and her teenage daughter. She asked (en español) if we needed a ride; Kristine is a native Spanish-speaker and was able to explain what happened, and the four of us piled into the back of the van with a round robin of "muchas gracias." She offered to take us all the way back to the university, granted that we could give directions; that ended up being something of an adventure as well, with a few wrong turns and missed exits before we pulled up next to the dorm. We then piled out, tired and sweaty but ever so grateful. Before they drove off, Katherine talked with her about how to find scholarships (she was looking into college for her daughter, I think). I wanted to offer gas money, but none of us was carrying cash; I kind of doubt she would have taken it anyway.
We went out to eat dinner later, and drank a toast to wonderfully kind ladies in minivans.
On the way back, we were stopped by a man who wanted "just a few minutes" of our time, which turned out to be something like fifteen and up, to talk about Jesus. Since none of us were rude enough to tell him to buzz off, he began lecturing at length about how we were awful people and deserved eternal damnation for being flawed, etc. In the midst of his proselytizing, a girl popped up and asked if we wanted free Red Bull. Eternal salvation? Meh. Free energy drinks? Hell yah! I do feel bad about ditching the guy's sermon (he's just trying to save people's souls and all), but not too bad, really.

Moral of the story: sometimes the point of enduring hardships and annoyances is to put you in the right place at the right time.