Fortune Telling

Earlier in June, I met up with two of my traveling buddies for a weekend to catch-up state side; in Portland, Maine to be exact.  Over lunch we swapped stories and updates in between chowing down on lobster rolls and a couple of summer ales.  When we finally decided to leave our coveted picnic bench in the sunshine to wander around town, the skies immediately clouded over and it started to rain.  Jess, our friend that hates shopping, bailed on our idea of ducking in and out of shops, saying she'd meet us back at the hotel in an hour or so.  My friend Moira and I continued on our window shopping adventure until even we (both of us fine shoppers in our own right) got bored.

"What do you want to do now?" I asked Mo, as we stood under a blue awning avoiding rain drops.
She shrugged.  "I don't know.  How long until dinner time?"
I laughed, pointed across the street at a fortune teller's sign.  "Have you ever gone to a psychic?"
Moira shook her head no.  "Have you?" she asked.
"I had my tarot cards read this past winter at our office holiday party...which was kinda cool.  And free."

By then, Moira and I both were already crossing the street, emboldened by our lunchtime beers and the $10 price advertised in said fortune teller's window.  She looked at me and shrugged again before stepping inside the tiny door frame.  I shrugged back and nodded, as if to say "why not?"

Now, the skeptical side of me has long since maintained that if psychics were really psychic they would know when someone was coming for a reading and only be open then.  And this woman probably should have "seen" us coming if we really want to get technical about things. But, I also check horoscopes occasionally and think there just might be some sort of truth to some of these things.  After all, I think we humans are all a lot more connected to one another and our planet than we might actually care to admit.  The universe knows what's up.  I genuinely believe that.

Plus? It was going to get us out of the rain for a few minutes.

As you will likely have guessed, we were presented a few more detailed (and expensive) reading options once inside the store front.  However, Mo and I stuck with the $10 plan. (Sure we were curious.  And also thrifty.)  $10 bought you two questions - any two questions you wanted to ask and the psychic will tell you what she "sees." Moira went first while I stood in the waiting room, eavesdropping on the conversation - more because I knew my friend would want help remembering all that was said and less about being nosy. (I mean, obviously she was going to tell me everything they said anyhow whether I could hear them or not. That's just how these things work.)

Then it was my turn.  I asked about my career first and several things she said actually made a lot of sense...specifically the fact that I had a very busy 18 months coming up. (More on that in another post.) But then things got pretty generic and she didn't leave me with a whole slew of news or findings.  Oh, well.  Next up, for my second question, I asked about relationships, purposefully keeping the question vague so as not to pigeon-hole myself into only one specific type of relationship.  The psychic replied with more general and broad comments for the most part, although apparently there's someone with a legal tie in my future.  (Wait, what?  Do I need to hire a lawyer?)  And then...that was that.  Time's up.  Questions done.

Moira and I left the psychic almost as quickly as we'd arrived, both of us $10 lighter.  She and I shrugged again as we made our way back to the hotel (Mo and I seemed to be doing a lot of shrugging together this weekend) and wondered aloud if we'd just thrown $20 away. 

"Well, whatever." I said.  "I've always been curious about going into one of those places.  Now we know."

"Yep.  Now we know." agreed Moira.  "And you and I have a new memory together of being in a random place at a random time with a random psychic on a random rainy Saturday."

Which is really what it's all about anyhow.