Jersey calling

So, after coming up with the potential boy's name, I was thinking yesterday how weird it was that for such a common name, I'd only really known one guy with that name. I've met others of course, but never gotten to know them. How strange, I was thinking, if it's in the top 5 names, you'd think they'd be all over the place. It kind of made me feel better that maybe even if a name is in the top 20, there's so many names used nowadays that they're all pretty spread out.

And then yesterday evening, I got an email from an old friend who I had literally forgotten existed. And he has the same name. Spooky. I mean, honestly, he was not on my radar when I was pondering on how many people I'd ever met with that name. We used to work together, carpool together, go to each other's houses for drinks, generally hang out. And I had forgotten he existed. We haven't been in touch for nearly 10 years, and he found me through our mutual friend Google.

The other thing that weirds me out about this, is that this friend is from Jersey. No, not Joisey. Not New Jersey, but the original one. The one New Jersey is named after. The one where Jersey Knit and Jersey Cows come from (yes, yes, you thought they came from New Jersey, but they didn't). You see, I lived there for 3 years and I had this real love/hate relationship with it. It was a bit of a culture shock for a city girl to suddenly be on this small island where everybody knows your business, and where you can be stuck for weeks on end in winter because the island gets fog-bound and the planes can't land. I was suddenly somewhere where tourism and generally being a tax haven were the main "industries". Where there was so much wealth and privilege that many of the locals seemed so out of touch with reality. My job was boring, and I thought it was the worst managed place in the world - this was obviously before I started at my current place ;). But then again, there were beaches, and clifftop walks, and beautiful scenery. God, it was pretty. You could live in the countryside and be 10 minutes from the main town. France was on our doorsteps, and there was a real sense of camaraderie between everyone who lived there. Or was that the booze - one of my favorite definitions of Jersey which I heard often was that it was "80,000 alcoholics clinging to a rock".

Why does this weird me out? Because in the last few months, Jersey has been invading my dreams. I dream of going back there, of working at my old company, of raising my kids there or even living my child free life there. I dream of the scenery, I dream of the houses (made of pink granite, no less), I dream of the winding roads, I dream of the pretty villages, I dream of the beaches, I dream of the beachside cafes. I even dream of the weather when I'm sweating in the Florida heat and humidity.

And now there's this odd combination. The place I have been dreaming of. The name that suddenly came to me, and seemed to be calling to me across the ether. Is it a sign that my kid is coming to me, or a sign that I've gone wrong in my life and should have stayed in Jersey, or a sign that maybe there's just an odd coincidence going on that I think of a name and someone from my past with the same name contacts me the next day. Whatever it is, it's just all a little, well, weird.