Have you ever been thinking about something, and a day later it happens? Or you talk about an old movie and the next day it’s on tv? Or you meet a neighbor when you’re on vacation 3 states away? My cousin calls these “weird things” and I’ve had a bunch of them the past few days.
1. A UW-Platteville alumni group was meeting at the restaurant the other day. (I don’t know why they chose to meet here – it’s 100 miles away.) I grew up about 15 miles south of Platteville, so I stuck my head in to see if I knew anyone. The group organizer came over and I mentioned the small town that I’d grown up in. She was surprised, and said she grew up in the same small town. I told her when I’d graduated from high school, and she said her aunt had graduated the same year. I asked her aunt’s name – and discovered it’s the person who now lives in the house I grew up in.
2. I was passing through the kitchen at work Tuesday morning and I saw a giant tub of peeled and sliced potatoes in the sink, with water running over it. I knew that they were for our homemade potato chips, and I wondered if they’d ever considered serving sweet potato chips. The chef wasn’t in the kitchen, so I didn’t have a chance to ask. The next day he emailed next week’s specials to me so I could write the menu and program the POS, and he had included homemade sweet potato chips.
3. I posted about the March of Dimes walk I’m participating in to raise money for research to help prevent premature birth. The next day I was reading my daily dose of Pioneer Woman, and she posted a moving story about the smile and wink from a stranger when she was in the hospital after her son was born five weeks prematurely.
4. Today I read a post from Grendelskin called Coulrophobia. She talked about the creepy clown doll she found. Then I turned on the television and watched Ghost Whisperer. The show was about a ghost clown, and clowns were the only thing that creeped out Melinda. Her psychiatrist friend said to her, “It’s your Coulrophobia. Your fear of clown.” Not just the subject, but the actual word?!!
I’ve had weird things happen before (especially in concert with the cousin who coined the phrase, like the inflatable mattress I “saw” on the floor in her room several hours before she bought the thing), but never so many so close together. It’s a little disconcerting.
Okay, I need to get back to quilty things. This makes three posts in a row that are completely unrelated to quilting – it just won’t do! Well, tomorrow’s the family & friends quilting day (aka Stitch & Bitch), so I’ll have photos to post. Of course, I still haven’t posted the photos from the last one…
Piecemeal Quilts 
Perhaps it is quilty = just maybe you’ll foresee the next quilt before you even start it.
So many creepy things at once! Years ago I read “The Celestine Prophecy” – its premise is that these are not conincidences but signs, calls to action even. (Eat more sweet potatoes!) It’s turned into a catchphrase – I’ll talk about some odd coincidence and the husband will roll his eyes, knowing I’ll say (eyes widened, in a tone of wonder) “It’s just like The Celestine Prophecy!”
On the other hand, maybe you just have extra neurons firing this week – we don’t know, do we? Hope they conjure up some lovely quilting!
I ALWAYS tell my kids that everything is a circle…we always talk about something and then read about it or hear it on the news,etc.
So, how is this for you: today I watched a Bones episode where Booth is afraid of clowns and Bones explains to him about Coulrophobia…and now I am reading your blog!
Thanks for the great blog updates!
Tricia
I’ve always thought the same thing about words. Then a few weeks ago my oldest said sometimes he learns a new word and then hears it on TV or reads about it. That coulrophobia thing though, that’s a good one.
By the way, a little story…my mother-in-law gave my boys each a hand-painted clown a few years ago. She told me she loves to give people clowns when they have a baby (I didn’t have the heart to tell her that most people are afraid of clowns – what was she thinking?) Anyway, one of the clowns had an “unfortunate” accident and we had to throw him away. We used the other one to scare each other by putting him under the covers or hanging him in the shower or the closet. You get the picture. We’re big on giving each other a fright. And clowns are especially good for that.
I read your story on Saturday and then something weird happened to me on Sunday evening. I went on to a classified site which I rarely do and there was a sewing table for sale. I responded to it immediately and got it yesterday. It had only been posted for a day, but the woman said she had been planning on taking the ad down and I replied just in the nick of time.