What goes around...

In the wake of last year's Series of Unfortunate Events, I spent more time than I care to think about visiting the Virginia Beach office of the VEC (Virginia Employment Commission). Hell, even one visit would have been one too many, but as it happened I was there at least five times to jump through one stupid hoop or another in connection with collecting unemployment.

As luck (?) would have it, about a month after I finally found a job and the unemployment checks stopped, the state closed down that VEC office, consolidating its functions with the Norfolk office. Good riddance, I thought, and breathed a silent sigh of relief that I wouldn't be going back to that office on Viking Drive ever again .

Hah, said the universe. That's what you think.

When I started my current job, I knew vaguely that the company was tight on office space. The local staff was divided between two inadequate office spaces a mile or so apart; they had been hunting, unsuccessfully, for a single suitable building for maybe a year, and had just reluctantly renewed their lease on the rented space. (I'm located in the building they own-- the one with the dolphin.) Since then, they've continued looking, though, and last week finally signed a lease on a building that has two and a half times the square footage of our current two spaces combined. And wonder of wonders, when we move in July, it will cut my 30-mile round trip commute to just 16, because the building's on Viking Drive.

The former VEC building.

Thankfully, it's undergoing extensive renovations (the mile-long counter and the "holding pen" in the front are gone already), and since I'll probably be parking in back and coming in through the back entrance, I can hope it won't hold any bad vibes for me. Still, it has to be one of the weirdest coincidences I've met up with yet.