Simply Serendipitous

I flew down to Sacramento yesterday to a) celebrate my mom's birthday with the whole fam and b) drive my parents back up to my house for a visit.  (It's a *very* long drive.)

My flight landed a couple minutes early and I followed the masses of exiting travelers down the stairs.  Most people turned right to find the baggage carousel.  Since I had my two changes of clothes in my backpack, I turned left to find the restroom.

Finishing up my business, I headed to the sink side of the dividing wall.  I found an empty sink and started scrubbing.  The lady next to me finished up and walked behind me to the paper towels.  I was still rinsing, but I say out of the corner of my eye her struggle with the paper towel thingie. She tried the next one, while I tried the first one.  (It still didn't work.)

In these few seconds, masses of very large women with very large suitcases cluttered up the bathroom.  Cattle call.  Seriously.  I noticed the paper towel lady go around through the stall side to reach the exit and thought, "Smart idea".  I was about to do the same when the large women parted and I was able to dash through.

Paper towel lady was right in front of me and I noticed that her pink sweater was really pretty.  Then I actually looked at *her* and realized it was my sister!

She and her fam were picking me up at the airport, but I fully expected to meet them outside at the pick up area.  I mean, people don't generally hop out of their car to use the airport restroom, right?

After stunned surprise, we hugged and then couldn't stop giggling at how we were right next to each other and never noticed one another!

How often do you think that kind of thing happens?  When you're just so fully focused on your own task at hand that you don't notice the people next you.  Who might you have missed?