Ok, today I joined my

best friend at his church to witness his ordination ceremony. As always, I 'moned up before leaving my house. I

used ~15 inches of SoE on my neck, 2 sprays of Chikara on my chest and approximately one dab of NPA split between

the tops of my hands (I am still getting the hang of pouring the NPA, so I probably used more than was warranted).

On top of this was a liberal amount of Jovan Musk For Men aftershave.

Now, between not being a regular churchgoer

(to say the least!) and being about an hour late, I was fairly anxious and so not at the top of my game.

Despite this being the first time I've used NPA with Chikara, the mix was the last thing on my mind. Point

is, I was not really trying to impress anyone else nor was I actively looking for hits. But, with hindsight,

several things happened that were out of the ordinary:

(1) I came to the back door at the same time as

another man, who insisted that I go in first as he held the door open with a huge grin on his face, but more on that

later.

(2) Two different guys (separately) addressed me directly as I walked in. They didn't say

anything unusual, but they did seem particularly interested in welcoming me and seeing "how I was."

(3)

Sparing you the extraneous details, a woman in the back pew emphatically (but pleasantly) told me to stand

next to her. She then tried several times to give me her devotional pamphlet before I spotted my friend and left

her to join him.

Now, as I said, these events were definitely out of the ordinary but I don't think they

were hits. For one thing, I was in a church on a happy occasion, one would almost expect to find more

friendly people than usual. Second, this was a fairly small church. Being a stranger, it makes perfect

sense that my presence would not go unnoticed. Again, I don't think these were hits, but maybe.
Any

thoughts?

You will have to pardon my being so long winded, but it was right before I left that something

very interesting happened. I had just congratulated my friend, shook his hand and was on my way out

when I ran into his wife, I'll call her J***. I don't know her very well, but she is by-no-means a stranger.

J*** looked up at me and I smiled and began to ask her how she was. Before I could finish, she threw her arms

around me and said "Thanks for coming N*****!" Bewildered, I quickly regained my composure and hugged her back

as I said I was glad I could be there.

My friend's wife, J***, is a very nice woman, the few times I have

spoken to her I certainly liked her. Like I said, I don't know her very well but she does not seem like the

kind of person who would hug a man she hardly knows. This, I am confident, was in fact a hit among hits,

don't you agree?

One more thing before I tie this up: Despite having only one surefire hit, the majority of the

people I talked to had a strange "half smirk" on their face. You know how a person's face almost glows when they

have had one or two drinks but are not yet "drunk?" It was a lot like that.

So, I am left with a few

questions...

What kind of experience has everyone had with NPA + Chikara? I don't think the SoE was all that

crucial to my experience today, what do you think? Also, what do you think of the strange smiles I mentioned

above, anything to it? I have a couple thoughts, but I'll wait for some replies so as not to influence you with my

interpretation.

Ok, I know that was really long (and perhaps boring), but I would really love to hear

someone else's take on my first experience with NPA + Chikara