It's easy to say "everything happens for a reason," when you can look back to the events of your life and connect the dots. But when it's happening around you, you have to take a step back and scratch your head. For me, there were two big events to my summer. They couldn't have been less similar and yet were only possible because of a food vendor. As bizarre as it seems, I got to mountain bike on the private trails of Trek bikes because I started buying appetizers from a new source. Here's how it all started...
Last year, I was approached by a new specialty vendor out of Madison that was bringing in high-end appetizers, desserts, and imported items. The fine dining chef in me salivated at some of the possibilities (at last, I can get squid ink). I accepted the fact that the only thing I'd probably get was the smoothie base that would save me a fortune at the coffee house where my wife and daughter loved to get insanely over priced beverages. I tacked on a few appetizers for our Christmas party and that seemed to be that. As their company grew, they expanded their sales force. Now I had a sales person checking in on me (and bringing delicious samples) almost weekly. As sales people are known to do, a good deal of small talk took place during these sales calls. At one point, she mentioned that the owner had just bought a place up on Washington Island, in Door County. I mentioned that a long lost colleague of mine was last seen on the island. Low-and-behold, two phone calls later, I was holding the number of the chef who I had worked beside at three different restaurants, in two different states. The chef who became my mentor 20 years ago. The chef I had last seen just before my now 10-year-old daughter's birth. A few months later, my family and I ate at The Wild Tomato, his new restaurant in Fish Creek. It was a fantastic reunion and it felt so good to be back in touch with him.
Fast forward another six weeks... I received an invitation to the Elegant Foods' open house in Madison which was conveniently scheduled on a Monday (my guaranteed day off, as the club is closed Mondays). "Hmmmm," I thought, "I have a standing invitation to tour Trek that was extended to me by a pro mountain biker." Did I dare make that call? I hadn't been in contact with said racer since last Christmas. Well, if you don't know how that story ends, read my last blog: Creepy Friendly and the Introvert.
Two seemingly polar opposite events connected, oddly, by a food supplier. Albert Einstein once said, "Coincidences are God's way of staying anonymous." Sometimes it's hard to argue with that logic.
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