The Importance of Being "Ernest"

Today, I was covering the reception desk for about a hour, and it was pretty uneventful, but I had two clients come to the window, one after the other within 10 minutes time. Both of these young men went by the name of Ernesto. I thought that was a little odd. Then I get a phone call for another client, named Ernest. What are the chances of that anyway? I had no idea that Ernest or Ernesto was such a popular name, did you? I guess it's just something else for me to wonder about...let's just say that it's been an odd week.

You know the saying: "Things happen in threes."

Well, the other day I went to close my mother's door with her keys (3 keys are on the key chain by the way), and when came back home, and it was time to open the door, for the life of me, the keys were GONE. They had disappeared! I have no idea where those keys are. I've looked high and low in the family van---not there. My mother has gone through her purse over and over again, but to no avail. When I got home, I thought I found the keys--but I was wrong--it was my own set of keys to her house--the set that doesn't work. Luckily I was able to get my mom's back door open, otherwise I would have had gone through the window.

Later, that same day I get home, and I'm met at the door by my older son, who is a little frantic. "I think I lost my phone again, mom!" Great. My son has lost or broke at least 3 phones in the last year.

About 15 minutes later, I hear the garage door open, and I see my daughter coming in the garage, with an equally distraught look on her face. Apparently, her look of distraught is the same as her look of relief. She went on to explain how she thought she lost her wallet at the gas station, and she was pretty upset when she couldn't find it, mainly because I had given her my credit card for gas money. She apparenlty thought the poor guy at the gas station misplaced it. Luckily she found her wallet under her seat.

Well, happily, my son eventually found his phone, and my daughter found my wallet and my credit card, but, sadly my mother's set of keys are still gone. Strangely--all of these misplaced items happened within the same hour. Weird.

The other day, during my lunch break, I was driving around town, wondering what I should pick up for lunch. I didn't want a big meal, or a sandwich, so I decided to go to Jamba Juice and had a strawberry smoothie. Later that day, Rich comes home, and we started talking about our day, like we usually do, and then he starts telling me about his lunch hour. Apparently, he wasn't too hungry either, so he stopped at the Jamba Juice that day as well, and --- yes, you guessed it --- had a strawberry smoothie. Of course this happened at the same hour--just different cities. Weird.

Not too long ago, I went to one of the drive in car washes, and the guy behind me, stepped out to alert me that my fuel gas door was open. I was very grateful to know this, and I mentioned it to Rich later that day. He looked at me, with disbelief and informed me that the very same thing happened to him that day as well. Weird.

Can someone explain all the weridness to me? Do these things happen just out of coincidence? Is the Earth a little off it's axis, or is it because the strong connection of the people I surround myself with? Is there a guy named Ernest at the Jamba Juice right now making me a strawberry smoothie at this very moment?

I went to the grocery store to get a sandwich. No, the guy who made my sandwich was not named "Ernesto" or "Ernest". I checked his name tag, his name was Carlos. If his name turned out to be Ernest or Ernesto, I don't know what I would have thought. Anyway, I went to buy my sandwich at the register, and the guy there ringing up my sandwich said something very profound. Don't ask me WHY he chose to tell me this, but he said this, word for word: "Sometimes our dreams are windows to our futures." Okay, that was weird as well.

It's Friday - this all that really matters right now. Have a great weekend!