Highway $61.00

Ever have one of those Saturday's where you've missed the window to deposit a check to clear for weekend use? My family just found ourselves in one of these situations, where the bank would only clear $100.00 of a larger check. After getting gas and paying a bill, I figured out (on a calculator) we were left with exactly $61.00 for a Trader Joes run. We arrived and meticulously began totaling up every item that went into the basket; that is...... to a point. We've actually found doing calculations of this nature collectively in our heads never seems to end up as close as we had figured all along. Plus we're known to get a little sloppy at the end- part laziness, the other part blind optimism. By the time we arrived at our cashier on this particular day, I began bagging our groceries and my wife (who by this time had forgot the amount we had to work within) grabbed my wallet, heard the total and asked me "How much money do we have in the account?" I said "Sixty One Dollars" and her eyes widened as she stared at me saying "that's our exact amount!!!" I had to see the receipt myself, but to the cent our total was $61.00 exactly. I'm unsure what combination of prices and taxes creates this amount, but I cannot recall ever having a total be such a precise random number.









On the day Sync And The City was launched, I wrote an email to some of my close friends and shared with them the idea. A dear friend of mine Camden awoke on a Sunday morning to find the email, checked out Sync, and something funny happened immediately afterward. Camden wrote me back saying:


"I went to check my email on yahoo and this was my horoscope:

Today is all about connections. Not just who knows whom, who used to have lunch with whom, whose baby-sitter got her nails done at the same beauty parlor as the person in charge. (Although that kind of connection can never be underestimated.) But you might also want to check out a few other things. For example, if your desk lamp won't turn on, ask yourself: Is it plugged into the socket? Ditto for the computer. And the telephone." Now, I'm a Leo, so yours will be different, but when I checked this before I went to bed (about 2a) after talking to a friend about "issues" and negative thoughts, defending myself, etc (longs story) my horoscope said FOR TODAY, mind you.. this was what I read, 'Stop thinking about the past -- the negative parts of it, at least. You've done your share of that and it hasn't done you any good. Why not look to the future instead, and think about all the good things that lie ahead for you? If there's anyone you can talk to who'll be able to remind you that what's gone before is worth taking along with you now, talk with them. Otherwise, think of yourself as a brand spanking new soul.' SO I share this with you as I chuckle of the SYNCHRONICITY of life... (even in horoscopes) as I 'listen' and 'pay attention' to my surroundings, too!"

As the 4th installment of Sync And The City comes to a close, I'd like to share an update to a story shared in the 2nd edition ('Are We Linked?'). The story was about the 'other guy with the initials J.C.' who recently came into my life. Here is an excerpt: 


"I arrived at a complete strangers apartment for this group very hungry, but to my upmost delight the host just happened to have a pot of fresh lentil vegan soup that he'd been cooking for anyone who was hungry. I was so excited and grateful! This was only the beginning of our synchronistic experience. I followed him into the kitchen and noticed a quote about music had been painted above his stove, so I asked him if he was 'a music guy'. He began to tell me he'd been a composer for film and television the same amount of time I had (6 years), had almost the identical level of success I had in the profession, and currently was waiting for funding to clear to begin his next project. This man, my height and age, wearing the same style glasses as me who's initials are the same as mine (J.C.) was telling my story! He'd also recently lost a bunch of weight (20 lbs. vs. my 40 lbs.) due to adapting a healthier diet and lifestyle, happened to be following the identical spiritual path and system of thinking I do, and (here's where it gets wild) is happily married with 2 children the same age as both of mine-  a three year old boy (who shares my birthday!) and an 8 month old baby girl. Here was a man who was basically my doppelganger living 10 miles away from my front door; someone I may never have had the opportunity to meet had it not been for this men's group; if I'd merely eaten something before I left the house I most likely would not have followed him into the kitchen while he prepared me soup (vegan soup, no less!) and we most certainly would not have had that moment carved out for us to discover all these wonderful similarities."


In keeping with the synchronicity Camden's story, upon seeing 'the other J.C.' the following week of Sync's launch, he shared with me that he too had begun a blog for the first time. What was crazy was that he had decided to do so the exact day I had created Sync!!! He was more private about his launch, but none the same, October 15th was his first entry and publishing. There is no way he could have known I was going to be embarking upon this 1st time endeavor into the blogosphere, for I had only spoken of it with my wife and mother late that evening, and created it in the final hours of October 15th (reference our 1st edition 'One Hour Till 34'). 


I love this existence! How about you?


Sync In The City is a place for strangers to share synchronistic experiences with each other. If you would like to participate, please forward stories to to: jc@jaymeecarpenter.com


  

    

It Is Happening.

Recently, a friend loaned me a CD of many lectures given by the great Alan Watts some time in the 1960's. At one point, Alan explores the concept of dying in our sleep, questioning the idea of where a being goes when it passes on in this way. Later, he revealed this would be his preferred way to leave the Earth when his time should come. I was bewildered to find out how Alan Watts did in fact die on November 16th, 1973. He would have certainly chuckled at this grand & quite final synchronistic event. 

To kick off the site's intended purpose of being a place for strangers to share synchronistic experiences with each other, our first contributions (outside of my own) arrived today from Assemblage artist Victoria Roberts (www.artassemblage.blogspot.com), or 'Mom' as I've called her for 34 years.   

1. While walking to the store one morning I chanced to encounter Michael O'Keefe reading the paper, drinking his coffee...I smiled and said hello, he too smiled and nodded. I walked on, remembering his marriage, and then divorce, to Bonnie Raitt. My mind wandered to Bonnie Raitt and all she had been through. Entering the store, within 30 seconds the Bonnie Raitt song 'Nick of Time' came on...right in sync with my thoughts!

2. I was driving a long distance and as I drove, a Stephen Stills song came on and I spent quite a bit of time wandering through my memories of the time I spent in Colorado working for Stephen Stills. I was driving for hours by myself so I allowed myself to reminisce. When I got home I went to check my email and I to my surprise I had an email from Stephen Stills in my inbox. Granted it was his endorsement of John Kerry and not an email to me personally, but what were the odds of me receiving an email from him for any reason, (we've been out of touch for 30 years), but on that day, when he had been so on my mind? 

3. I went over to my friend Laurie's house one night and asked her to go to dinner with me at Canter's Deli in Los Angeles. I felt like having some of their barley soup. We walk down there and as we entered we noticed signs posted that there may be cameramen filming… and, there's a sign up saying that the barley soup is 55 cents. We figured it was part of a mock-up for some film project, after all, we're in LA. So when our waitress comes up and we order the barley soup, she figures we're there for the special. Then we ask her about the sign, and she says, “it's part of the 55th birthday special, the soup is 55 cents”. WOW, we thought we really scored! Then Laurie suggests I order a sandwich to share, anything that I want, my choice. I chose corned beef on rye, as that what I was craving! So we ordered one to split and the waitress looked at us with a quizzical look. "Why don't you each get one, they're only 55 cents?" We looked at each other and turned to her and ask, "is everything on the menu 55 cents?” “No" she says, "just the two things you ordered". The rest of the evening as we sat and enjoyed our meals costing us $1.10 each, I couldn’t help but feel I was exactly in the right place at the right time… the waitress was unusually cheerful and pleased with the idea that we had just happened on to this circumstance... we too marveled on and off for hours!

Sync In The City is a place for strangers to share synchronistic experiences with each other. If you would like to participate, please forward stories to to: jc@jaymeecarpenter.com

Are We Linked?

"So, what is synchronicity really?" you might ask, though most likely you've experienced it possibly on a daily basis.


Well.....Merriam-Webster defines synchronicity as being the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality —used especially in the psychology of C. G. Jung


I will give you yet another demonstration:


The other day I was invited to join a men's group on parenting I had never participated in at a friend of a friends' house. Having some serious dietary restrictions I find it difficult most of the time to rush out of the house and just grab something to eat on my way out, and being pressed for time, I simply figured I wouldn't starve to death over the course of 3 hours so I left the house without eating. I arrived at a complete strangers apartment for this group very hungry, but to my upmost delight the host just happened to have a pot of fresh lentil vegan soup that he'd been cooking for anyone who was hungry. I was so excited and grateful! This was only the beginning of our synchronistic experience. I followed him into the kitchen and noticed a quote about music had been painted above his stove, so I asked him if he was 'a music guy'. He began to tell me he'd been a composer for film and television the same amount of time I had (6 years), had almost the identical level of success I had in the profession, and currently was waiting for funding to clear to begin his next project. This man, my height and age, wearing the same style glasses as me who's initials are the same as mine (J.C.) was telling my story! He'd also recently lost a bunch of weight (20 lbs. vs. my 40 lbs.) due to adapting a healthier diet and lifestyle, happened to be following the identical spiritual path and system of thinking I do, and (here's where it gets wild) is happily married with 2 children the same age as both of mine-  a three year old boy (who shares my birthday!) and an 8 month old baby girl. Here was a man who was basically my doppelganger living 10 miles away from my front door; someone I may never have had the opportunity to meet had it not been for this men's group; if I'd merely eaten something before I left the house I most likely would not have followed him into the kitchen while he prepared me soup (vegan soup, no less!) and we most certainly would not have had that moment carved out for us to discover all these wonderful similarities. This was proven when our time was cut short as the meeting began.


After exchanging each others information that night before we parted ways, the next day J.C. contacted me by email. He had visited my website and recognized the studio I primarily work out of from the documented footage of some of my sessions. 2 years prior, he'd sold the owner of this studio a pair of speakers that I had actually used on some of my projects while working there in the last year. Can you believe it?     


Sync In The City is a place for strangers to share synchronistic experiences with each other. If you would like to participate, please forward stories to to: jc@jaymeecarpenter.com   

One Hour Till 34

I'm 33 years old for just another hour and nineteen or so minutes, but by the time I post this, it'll be significantly closer. I just walked into my living room after putting my 3 year old son back to sleep. When I walked out, I looked at my phone and it was exactly 10:16pm. I was born on October 16th, or 10/16, which is tomorrow, when I'll be 34 years of age. What are the odds, the night before my birthday, after spending a good deal of time trying to coo a toddler back to sleep that I'd arrive back in front of my phone at this exact time? This is probably the most uninteresting experience I've had recognizing synchronistic events, which I feel is saying a lot.

There was the time recently when my son and I were watching a Baby Einstein video. One scene on this particular disc featured a lamp string dangling from the top of the television screen and a hand puppet examining it curiously. The hand puppet did what any of us would likely do if alone- be curious enough to pull the string. But at the precisely exact moment it did (with force, I might add) the electricity went out in my apartment building and entire street. I report this to you with no exaggeration in timing. This is an extreme example of a synchronistic event, and I hope to share many more.

In the fairness of balance (if you've done the astrological math by now, you'll figure out I'm a Libra and that's supposed to mean I enjoy balance, though who knows really if that's why I do) I should report a sort of middle of the road experience, and then hurry up and go to bed so I can wake up as a 34 year old man.

I was in Rite Aid 2 days ago buying razor cartridges. For the first time ever, I noticed the packaging translates the word 'cartridges' in french to 'cartouches'. I reported this visual recognition to my wife. "Cartouches" I joked around with her, though from what I understand it's pronounced 'cartoosh'. I found it funny because it reminded me of another word people get called a lot these days, or playfully refer to themselves as being. However, it is a word I have not ever (in my recollection) heard tossed around at parties, while traveling overseas the couple of times I have, or with a buddy while he buys razors. The word 'cartouches' was as unfamiliar as a distant stranger. Now, after waiting in a decent sized line with 4 separate cashiers (giving me a 1 in 4 chance of ending up with whom I did), I was beckoned by an open cashier named Gloria and began the process of purchasing my item. The first thing that caught me off guard was that her opening line to me was "Does your girlfriend care that you have the name Jennifer tattooed on your neck?" This is odd for a number of reason. One-  my girlfriend? Then I remembered I recently lost 40 lbs and wasn't wearing my wedding ring, so OK-  that takes care of that. But Jennifer (my first wife's name) is tattooed on my neck in egyptian hieroglyphics! Rather than getting into the how's, why's, and who's with this woman, having been in a weird situation or 2 in the past, I carried on with her as if this were totally normal and said "No, my wife doesn't mind because her and I now have matching tattoos on the other side of my neck and one corresponding on her wrist". But I have to be honest, I was still very much in a mystical daze of sorts when Gloria and I reached our most excellent moment as strangers; we stumbled upon a synchronistic event that I will now share with you: Gloria then said "This is a really good price on cartouches", pronouncing it not the way someone who understood french dialect would, but in the funnier, comical way I had joked with my wife earlier (cartooshes). She carried on "Yeah, I've seen cartouches around for 2 dollars more than this everywhere....... this is a good price." What are the odds?

These everyday events are the sole reason I have started this blog, and are the only experiences you should expect to find recorded here. I've found that no matter your intellect, faith or non, race or background that human beings in general have these moments often in their lives. Some chalk it up to luck, or coincidence, or God working in mysterious ways. I'm unsure of any of that, and feel branding the experience will end up cheapening it. At very least, it's interesting to read or hear of.

It is now a little under 10 minutes before my 34th birthday on planet Earth. Welcome to Sync In The City!!!

Sync In The City is a place for strangers to share synchronistic experiences with each other. If you would like to participate, please forward stories to to: jc@jaymeecarpenter.com