Ellie did something real cute while I was talking to Kevin on the phone. I wasn't there to see it, but Kevin says she reached out and petted Oliver twice. Go ahead and get your ooooh's and ahhhh's out right now (AHH!!! HOW CUTE!!! :)), cuz now you're entering the 'Dave is a freak' part of the story.

After he said Ellie was petting Oliver, I told him he should record that in the baby book so they'd never forget this day. About 15 minutes later, I went to the Baby website, and I noticed Kevin made an entry a few hours before. In the entry, Kevin refers to the Baby website as the "baby book". I don't recall either one of us ever refering to the website as a baby book before (at least not recently), so I was a little surprised. Why did we both independently call the website "the baby book" at the same time? Coincidence? Probably. The next story is freaky, though.

A few companies ago, back in Peoria, I worked right across the street from an awesome sandwich shop. I frequented their place at least once a week, and they always knew what I wanted, because I always purchased the same perfect sandwich. Then one otherwise normal day, something weird happened, and I stopped going to my favorite sandwich shop.

The line was fairly long, there were about eight to ten people in front of me waiting to order. Still, I didn't mind waiting, because the food was good, and they always kept the line moving pretty fast. When I was about 3 people back, I got out my wallet and pulled out a 20 dollar bill (because I'm an efficient sandwich purchaser who already has my money ready before they ask for it). That's when it happened. I looked down at the 20 dollar bill and I stared at it for at least 10 seconds. Something didn't seem right. I knew what was going to happen next.

I knew the old man at the counter would know I wanted a veggie sandwich, and I knew the old man at the counter was going to accuse me of trying to cheat him out of 10 dollars. My 20 dollar bill was staring me in the face, and yet I knew the guy would think it was a 10 dollar bill. Now it was my turn to order. He looked at me, smiled as usual, and verified I wanted my regular sandwich. He told me the price, and I handed him my twenty. He put the twenty on top of the register (a good trick for cashiers to do so there won't be any arguments), and gave me the correct change. He closed the register and I figured "hey, I was sure off on that one, time to EAT!" But no.

The old man starts taking the next guy's order but then he _stopped right in the middle_ of the transaction and looks at me and says: "Did I just give you too much change? You gave me a 10." He looked slightly annoyed, like I would let him give me too much change. I said "I gave you a twenty. I know it was a twenty because I just went to the ATM and I didn't have any cash before that." Now he looks pissed off, and he says "I can go count all the money in the register right now". I said "that's fine with me". Now he looked at me with suspicion, but didn't push the issue any further. I felt a lot of eyes on me, but I hung around a few more minutes to get my sandwich, and then I left.

How would I know that was going to happen? Was it a coincidence? Was it somehow a self-fulfilling prophecy? I've considered both of those scenarios, but neither fit. When it comes to these strange occurences, I'm always the skeptic, but sometimes tomorrow seems like yesterday. I've got more stories like these (one about a fish, and another about a building).