HOW THE STARS ALIGNED

Last April, I was reading Jasmine’s blog and saw post titled: Wanna shoot a wedding with me. Um heck ya I did. It was for charity and whoever won the ebay auction would go to Philly and shoot a wedding with her as a 3rd shooter. The last day to bid on the auction I had a plan, it never failed on ebay. I’d wait till the last 30 seconds and bid. Apparently everyone had this sure win ebay strategy. My heart was beating so fast, I’m not a huge risk taker and the bid had gone up ALOT. More than I ever thought I would pay or could. I just kept thinking, it’s for charity, I never do anything like this, let me just take this risk for once, but still had insecurities about making this huge purchase. I shut my brain off for the last minute of the auction and just clicked. BID. My adrenaline was in high gear. Did I make the right choice, I was going to win, I kept refreshing I was the highest bidder, 5 seconds left, 4, 3, 2,1…I refreshed my screen one last time to see that someone had out bid me. I hate losing, I’m competitive, I got sad, maybe I was emotional, maybe it was because it was midnight and way passed my bedtime and I was cranky, but I cried, yes like a baby. I went to bed that night trying to make myself feel better and kept saying it wasn’t meant to be, maybe it was better I didn’t spend that money. Oh well, there goes that.

Come 7 months later, it seemed the stars just aligned for me. The odds of me deciding to come to California, to get away from New York, I couldn’t do another cold winter anymore. Once I got to California, I decide to join 24 hour fitness and drop my equinox membership and started going to a morning kickboxing class and alternating it with a spin class. This morning the normal kickboxing teacher called in sick and we had a substitute teacher. The teacher and Jasmine are friends and texts her to let her know she’s substituting and to come to this morning class. I get there early as I always do with everything, I see her and say hi and we catch up since the last time I saw her, she tells me she has her last wedding on Saturday and the ceremony is outside and the weather is rain, pouring rain. I asked if she needs me to help out, hold her umbrella while she shoots, she said she might take me up on it. Oh how the stars aligned for me. The morning of the wedding I got ready, headed to the wedding and yes, held a umbrella for us during the ceremony, watched her shoot and interact with the bride and groom, take formal shots and the detail shots at the reception and held the off camera lighting. I helped where I could and tried not to get in anyone’s way.

After the wedding on my drive home, I just kept thinking, what are the odds that this all happened and I was at the right place at the right time and had this opportunity. Sometimes a opportunity might slip by you, but maybe just maybe down the line there is a even better opportunity that will be in your cards and for that I am so grateful.

Here is the picture JD took of us off the iphone.