I have been told that I’m too damned lucky, and this story serves as more evidence for that argument.
On Saturday, March 29th, my entire family — all of whom, save me, are doctors — were going to attend a gala dinner/dance for the Filipino-Canadian Medical Association. I was also going to attend. Although I am not a doctor, I am the family’s smoothest public speaker, and they commissioned me to rock the mic and be the MC for the evening. I even had a couple of Toastmaster’s Club-style jokes ready.
However, in light of the SARS epidemic, it was decided that gathering a large number of Asian medical professionals in the same room might not be such a hot idea. The gala was postponed until a date to be determined later.
This turned out to be a good thing for two reasons:
- A doctor who would have attended the gala came down with SARS. He the night gone on as planned, we’d have all been exposed.
- I ended up taking Matt Jones out on the town with New Girl. In addition to having fun hanging out with Matt, I took the picture of me and New Girl that ended up in the “Ten Cool Things About New Girl” posting that prompted a warning email from a whistleblower. We were seen by a couple of people who in turn mentioned seeing me and New Girl to that same whistleblower.
Had the gala not been cancelled and had New Girl and I not gone out on the town, I might be drastically worse off today.
It’s amazing how such a tiny change of plans can have major consequences.