Lily Allen

I get to start off with a perfect example of the type of coincidence I'm talking about, that just happened last week:

I was watching Knocked Up with a friend. Near the start of the movie (in the club scene I believe) Lily Allen's song "Smile" is playing in the background. It has a very distinctive beat, so it was easy to pick out. I wanted to remember to listen to that song when I got home, so I mentioned it to my friend but at the time I couldn't remember who sang it.

Once the movie was over I guess my mind was clearer in the parking lot and I remembered that the singer was Lily Allen. That was funny already because I don't own any of her CDs and I don't listen to the kind of pop radio that plays that song. I probably knew the name from Perez Hilton, of all places.

Right after the movie we went to Chapters to get some Starbucks coffee. As we were browsing around the books we came to the magazine rack and I was flipping through some of them. I recently started getting into family history, so I picked out one of the super-expensive UK-based family history magazines -- which was on the bottom shelf at the very back -- and flipped it open...

It fell open, as magazines sometimes do, right in the center where the staple was visible. Who was on the left side of the page? Lily Allen and an article about her Allen family history.

I had told my friend about having those types of coincidences a few weeks before, so it was weird to finally have a witness to one. It was nice to have someone around to share the weird factor.

Introduction

For the past few years I've experienced what I consider to be rather bizarre coincidences. I see a reference to a certain person, place, thing, etc in two places shortly after one another. This wouldn't be that bizarre, except that the coincidence usually involves things that I haven't seen references to ever in my life or in a very long time -- or I run into the two instances in under strange circumstances.

Maybe I'm just paying better attention to my surroundings these days? Maybe I'm just getting out more? I'm not sure -- this blog is just to document these things to make sure I'm not going completely crazy. If you're entertained that's just gravy!