For the second time in 2004, I found myself in Chicago, this time to photograph homes in the western suburbs.

Arriving on a Saturday, CJ offered to be my hostess for the weekend. Almost immediately, she put me to work. CJ's condo includes the top portion of an old elevator shaft, and the structure once had a functional deck on the top of it. Due to some building repairs, the deck had to be removed, but now there was a plan in place to rebuild it. To facilitate the process, I took some pictures of the rooftop for the appropriate officials to see. Completing that, CJ had more fun in store for me.

It turns out that local actor Gary Sinese has a band, the "Lieutenant Dan Band", named after his famous character in the movie Forest Gump. The keyboard player and one of the singers just happen to be a couple of CJ's neighbors. Accordingly, a number of folks from the condo were invited to head over to a bar where the Lieutenant Dan Band was performing that night to raise money for the Pentagon Memorial Fund.

The band was quite talented and played a collection of cover tunes that were very familiar to the crowd. As fate would have it, another little moment of synchronicity occurred. Sipping a lite beer, I turned around to see my close friend Maggie standing behind me with a big grin on her face. That in itself was surprising, but the kicker was, independent of my entourage, she also had a friend in the band, one of the female singers. What a coincidence that turned out to be. It made my head spin, as usual.