Mirror Synchronicity: The Other Me

Lately my name has been coming up a lot in reference to other people with the same name. The first incident was on Jeopardy. My husband was laughing when they introduced the contestants and one was "Liz Miles." He wanted to know if I wanted a picture. I did not. Especially not after she talked about the sex life of Japanese men during her story. What?!



Here's an article written about her unexpected story.

But then a week later, I saw a CEU at work offered by Liz Miles, a pharmacist. I have not met another Liz Miles in person, so I might go to the class even though it is over my head. Kind of cool that these two are smart people. I'm in good company.

The icing on the cake though was a very long email I just got, thanking me for my involvement in some camp in Colorado.

It read in part:

Great Job everyone!

I want to say a great big THANK YOU to each of you for the part you played in making our first day of Expedition Norway go so well!  We had 125 kids come today and every one of them had a huge smile on their face!  I loved seeing you all interacting with the children and loving on them.  My heart is overflowing with gratefulness for all of you and for what God is 

doing through you!

I don't know this for sure, but I wonder if it's the same Lizzy Miles in Colorado who bought Cutco knives, which is (I believe) the sister of "Bruce" who invited her to a wedding. Both the knives and the wedding invitation were connected to a Lizzy Miles in Colorado. The knives purchase scared me because I knew I didn't buy any knives and I worried about identity theft. I researched the situation and confirmed that is was a typo on the email. whew! 
Bruce was apologetic that he sent me a wedding invitation intended for his sister. He said since it was his sister he should have known better. I don't have any brothers... maybe Bruce will be my honorary brother.

There is also a Lizzy Miles in England for whom I get email. One was bad for me to receive. Though I have never met her, I feel it's not my place to share her medical information that was sent to me by mistake. Certainly, I emailed the senders and they were quite embarrassed. Strangely, they wouldn't give me Lizzy's true email address. I wanted it in case I got other emails that were intended for her (which has happened.)

So what does all this mean? It is a big reminder to me how connected the world is. I think we always were connected, but now with the internet, it's almost supernatural (in a good way.)  I would like to meet some of the other Liz Miles/Lizzy Miles people out there. Maybe if they google themselves, they'll find this article...

Mirror Synchronicity: No Fate

The last time I was in Las Vegas we ate at Chin Chin Chinese restaurant at New York New York Casino. The meal was excellent. After the meal, the waiter brought the check and fortune cookies. As you can imagine, I LOVE fortunes and all that stuff. I was disappointed to find that my fortune cookie was empty of a fortune. When the waiter came back with the credit card, I mentioned the empty cookie (with hopes I would get another cookie, I think.)  Without missing a beat, the waiter said,

“There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves.”

I then learned from my husband and the waiter that the quote was a line from the Terminator. I don't know if the waiter had used that line before, but I thought it was quite witty to come up with that response so quickly.

This happened 5 months ago, and as I am getting ready to go to Las Vegas again, yesterday I was thinking about that restaurant and that exchange with the waiter.

Then last night I was watching the latest episode of Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders. There is an episode set in Turkey. The main character is reminiscing with an old friend and said, 

"How did we get here from there?"

His friend replied, "The future has not been written. There is no fate but what we make."

Another character said, "That's beautiful, is that from the Koran?"

and of course Gary Sinise's character replies, "Terminator II"

So, this is definitely a mirror synchronicity that happened for me and I wonder if it is a directional synchronicity too. Is the universe reminding me that my future is in my hands?

Mirror Synchronicity: School Zone

Today as I was driving through a school zone with my husband, he mentioned that sometimes he forgets to slow down. He described how some lady yelled at him.

I said I used to forget, until I got pulled over once. He didn't remember that I had.

I told him that I just got a warning, which he couldn't believe. "I thought school zone tickets were automatic," he said.
We ended up talking about school zones for several minutes.

This evening, when I logged on my computer, I got a Facebook prompt to see my "memories" from today.

Imagine my surprise to see this from seven years ago today:

Directional Synchronicity: Is "Badass" the New "Rock Star"?

The Badasses seem to have kicked the Rock Stars butts.

A couple of weeks ago at a friend's birthday party I noticed he had a gold necklace that said BADASS. Then I started seeing and hearing the word badass everywhere. In fact, I did a Google News search and it surprised me to see the word used as a headline in so many articles.

The word is not new, but seems to me to be quite trendy now and the usage has not been standardized. You might see Bad Ass, Badass or BADASS. Reminds me of the time when some of us wrote e-mail, which turned out to be a pain, so it evolved to email. I think badass as one word will win. The way it's used varies too.

It is mostly used as an adjective
25 BADASS ways to say no
8 Badass women warriors
10 badass Latinas Every American Should Thank
Celebrate Chuck Norris on His Birthday with 10 Badass Memes
and my favorite - 11 Most Badass Last Words Ever Uttered

but sometimes used as a noun

There is even a website store named BadAss Jewelry. (note the capital A).

Now maybe it's just me, but I don't think this word has been mainstream very long. A couple of years ago, the aspirational adjective was to be a rock star, or to be around rock stars. The New York Times noted the popularity of the Rock Star buzz word in the Fall of 2015

How Rock Star Became a Business Buzzword

And sure enough there were a lot of articles about business people being rock stars
Business Plan: Become a Rock Star, 5 Characteristics of a Rockstar Startup CEO and 5 Ways to Keep your Rock Star Employees from Quitting

There are still articles about rock stars but now it seems that badass has taken over. It's hard to prove the evolution because musicians are still "rock stars" in media articles and a lot of rock stars have been dying lately. Additionally, there are brands with rockstar in the name, most notably the energy drink.

So why the transition?  It's the second dictionary definition in the McMillan dictionary that intrigues me:  "ready to behave in an unpleasant way when necessary".

Google gives a similar definition: "a tough, uncompromising, or intimidating person".

A journalist for Atlantic Monthly claims that badass has been appropriated as a feminist word.

This blog is a record of my synchronistic experiences, so with me noticing the word badass everywhere, does that mean the universe is telling me to be one?  That's not my assertion. I I don't really identify with either word.  I like cat videos and muppets and rainbow colored candy.  What do people like me aspire to?

I'm still trying to figure this all out.

Synchronicity on TV: Angel from Hell

If you like synchronicities, this new CBS comedy show with Jane Lynch Angel from Hell is a must-see.  This trailer should give you an idea of the humor.  Warning: the trailer has spoilers of the first episode.  If you trust me, I would just say find the first episode and watch that.