Saturday’s run into Manhattan from New Jersey—where Irene was attending the annual NJ Romance Writers conference—began with everything going my way. When I hit the lobby, the hotel shuttle was waiting with an open door about to head to NJ Transit, and when we got to the Metropark station, the next train to New York (they were running every 30 minutes) arrived almost immediately. But that wasn’t all the serendipity Saturday had in store for me.

When I stepped up from my track in NY and into Penn Station, a voice called out behind me, “Scott! Scott!” It was Chris Kalb, the art director who’d made Sci-Fi Entertainment and then SCI FI magazine look so pretty during the eight years I edited it for Syfy. We’d had no plans to meet that day. He just happened to miss his train out of NY to an old-time radio convention in New Jersey, and if he’d made it, he’d have been gone before I arrived. We chatted until his next train, talking about (among other things) old pulps and the editing of James Schmitz reissues (which was discussed on a World Fantasy panel of mine, “The Moral Distance Between the Author and the Work,” last year—check out this video starting at 11:52).

You’d think that was all the serendipity I deserved in a single day, But no, there was to be more. A lot more.

After that chance encounter, I wandered Manhattan for a couple of hours, visiting Forbidden Planet and other old haunts before meeting Paul Witcover for lunch at my favorite NY restaurant, Shopsins. There was no serendipity there—though there was Cajun meatloaf, oxtails with rice, okra gravy, and apple sauce French toast.

Then it was back to meandering until a planned dinner with Rick Bowes, and only Rick Bowes. (Here’s where the serendipity picks up again.) I was tired from all the miles I’d walked, and so parked myself on a bench in Washington Square Park until Rick was available. (I of course made a comment about that over on Twitter.) He met me a little after 4:00, and as we shared old NY memories (like the time I told a couple of gorillas in a big, black car, that no, I hadn’t seen Meade Esposito), who should come up to us but Michael Cisco, a friend and fellow writer, who was in the park because he’d heard an Occupy Wall Steet teach-in was supposed to happen there.

We waxed nostalgic for a while about our old protests (such as when I once guarded Pete Seeger while he was performing during an anti-Vietnam protest back when I was still in high school), and then Michael wandered off in search of the action, leaving Rick and me to watch the passing parade.

But that’s not the only serendipity the day had in store for me. Because as we sat there, Tempest Bradford tweeted in response to my own tweet that she was in a coffee shop a couple of blocks away, and we should join her there if we had the time. Which we did. And as we sat in the Vagabond Cafe (here comes even more serendipity) Ellen Datlow both tweeted and phoned that she’d like to join us as well. Which she did. So I drank caramel tea and they drank hot chocolates, and the four of us sat on couches and in comfy chairs, chattering until it was time to figure out where to go in search of dinner.

(Before I forget—as we were leaving and yammering about science fiction, the wait staff showed us their tattoos, he Star Wars, she Star Trek. If that doesn’t count toward my serendipity allotment, well, it should.)

And then we found perhaps the biggest bit of serendipity of them all. Because there was a guy across the street from our cafe with a small crowd around him. And he had a puppet with him. And as we stepped closer, we realized—hey, that’s an Elmo puppet. And then we realized—that’s not just any guy—it’s actually the guy who plays Elmo on Sesame Street!

We stared for awhile, and I took a rather grainy photo in the darkness, and marveled at what we had seen.

Then we had dinner at Trattoria Pesce Pasta, which we chose because it was one of the few places that wouldn’t make us wait 45 minutes or longer on a Saturday night, but which turned out to serve pretty good food, too. And then it was back to the Vagabond for more tea and a few crepes, until I had to end the party shortly after 11:00 so I could make my 11:56 train back to New Jersey.

Rick and I walked north to Penn Startion, and in the final bit of serendipity, I arrived mere minutes before my train was to leave.

So there you have it. More serendipity than I could possibly deserve in a day. Two chance encounters with friends, two not-so-chance Twitter-inspired encounters, and one encounter with Elmo! I have a feeling I’ve used up all my serendipity for the year.

But hopefully not. Let’s see what World Fantasy Con brings this weekend, shall we?