[Just to get the technical crap out of the way first, No I have not yet passed my kidney stone and I'm seeing a(n?) urologist tomorrow afternoon.]

You all know how I feel about coincidences and synchronicity.  I go through periods of time when I’m all intune with things and all kinds of cool stuff happens.  Other times, not so much.  But when I am in these states of (let’s call it) heightened awareness, a word or an image or a person will keep popping up and there’s no end to the entertainment for me.

(Juju makes fun of me and my coincidences, but when it happens to her, she’s all like, enthused to share it with me…)

Thinking back, this particular “string” started a couple of weeks ago.  I was out with friends and a guy started up a conversation with me.  We had gone to the same high school but at different times.  Sorta.  Actually, when I was in 7th grade, he was a senior (Captain of the Football team, so I did remember him.)  We talked about so many things but the last thing he said to me was that I needed to find a song and listen to the lyrics.  He said it would make me cry.  He was very sure of this and I’m not sure why he wanted me to cry… but the name of the song was Looking For an Echo.  It was about a group of young singers who were trying to “make it” and would look for places to go and sing.  Anyway, I searched for the song deep in the bowels of the iTunes store and when I found it, I also found another song by Maia Sharp (who I had heard of but wasn’t familiar with any of her music.)  I listened to and liked her song Death By Perfection which is on her cd entitled Echo.  I liked it enough that I put it in my shopping cart in iTunes to purchase later.  That was on a Sunday night.  THE FOLLOWING AFTERNOON on my way home from work, there was Maia on my radio station singing Death by Perfection.   I nearly drove off the road when realized it was playing.  So the word ECHO has been infiltrating my consciousness about once a day since.  When I was reading the Wiki article the other day when I wrote the about Razorlight,  I noticed that their 2005 Acoustic cd was recorded on the Echo Label.

Hazel was kind enough to lend me Dooce’s book,  It Sucked and Then I Cried. It’s hilarious and heart-warming.  I finished it last night.  But not before reading 2/3rds of the way down page 248 where it said:  “Alone. (ECHO  ECHO  ECHO)”  Really.  Incidentally, I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever birthed a child or plans to in the future.  Or anyone who loves Heather B. Armstrong aka. Dooce.

I like to think that maybe someone is trying to tell me something through these experiences.  It’s probly nothing but it amuses me.  I once had the same thing happen with “Las Vegas” almost daily for almost 3 entire years.  It started with Shawn Colvin’s recording of Viva Las Vegas.  I was almost to the point of believing that I needed to go there to figure out why the hell it wouldn’t leave me alone.  And someday I will go there, because I have to know.

Alright, enough of this.  I’m falling asleep.  Tell me your most recent or favorite coincidence.

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Update: I originally drafted this post on Saturday, July 4th.  On Sunday night I clicked on a link on Twitter.  There’s a guy I read who writes a kind of FYI column for Twitter.  The first sentence read: “There seems to be a wave of suspensions going around Twitter () today, and it’s turning quickly into an echo chamber of confusion and frustration.” I’m not shittin’ you.

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Another update and I’m totally not shittin’ you.  I’ve recently fallen head over heels in love with the Hoodoo Gurus and have been buying up all their music that I can get my grubby little hands on.  I got my second cd yesterday (Tuesday July 6th).  Listened to it today.  Guess the name of Track #8… In the Echo Chamber.  F*** in’ hey!!!