list #9: 10 events in my past that, to this day, still seem surreal

1.  Being invited to sit in the flight deck of a jet flying from Trinidad to Miami, and being allowed to stay during landing.

2.  Getting called up on stage to dance, along with my best friend, at a small concert by a regional band in Galveston, Texas.

3.  Sitting in my room at a luxurious hotel in Dubai, having a glass of wine with my room service dinner, glued to the television watching live coverage of the Twin Towers collapse on September 11, 2001.

4.  Being at a Lenny Kravitz concert, close enough to the stage that when Lenny decided to go down into the audience while playing his guitar, he stopped to dance with me for a brief few seconds.

5.  Standing with my dad in a hallway at a Las Vegas airport while waiting for my sister and mother to come out of the bathroom, and suddenly hearing my dad say, "Hey, Bill." As I looked to see who he was talking to, I saw Bill Cosby walking by with all his kids, smiling at my dad and saying, "Hey, how are you doing?"

6. Waiting in the entrance of a high end restaurant, when a homeless person walked in wielding a big stick. Clearly terrified (though it's unclear why), he clocked me in the forehead, fracturing my skull.

7. Calling the State Bar of Texas to find out about my bar exam results, and hearing the man at the other end of the line say, "You ... passed."

8.  Walking through the streets of Hangzhou, China, and suddenly feeling hands in my rather large afro. On turning around, two young Chinese women pulled their hands out of my hair and giggled, embarrassed and awed.

9.  Related: standing in the aisle of an airplane waiting to disembark, when suddenly I felt a hand on the back of my head, rubbing my very closely-cropped hair.  When I turned around, an American man who I'd never seen before was smiling at me, looking rather proud of himself:  "I'm sorry," he said.  "I couldn't help myself. I had to." 

10.  Receiving the phone call from the adoption agency, telling Marcus and me congratulations, we're having a girl.

Image:  Flower from Jenny's garden in central Texas, photographed with Nikon D300, 60mm micro lens

Song:  Let Love Rule (Justice remix) by Lenny Kravitz