And I occasionally feel the need to share them.
Exactly three days after my post about supposed serendipity, I happen upon another consequential circumstance - the downright strangeness of which cannot be ignored.
A few months ago, I tried to convince my roommate (and occasional blog contributor) Ryan to watch this fantastic little gem of a television series called "Carnivale". You see, Ryan grew up hyper-Christian home-schooled, and the series is steeped in "good vs. evil" themes with thinly-veiled Christian theology as a thesis.
Ryan's a smart kid. He's a good Christian at heart (although he may deny it), but he often struggles with his "Dark Side".
And by "Dark Side", I mean the smart kid that lives inside of him, constantly questioning the whole idea of religion and faith.
That said, if you've ever seen "Carnivale", you know why I think he'd like it.
If however, you've never seen an episode, you should immediately go to amazon.com, order the DVD boxset, watch it in its entirety, and then, continue reading this blog.
Ryan and I were sitting home one night when he threw me the remote control. That's how he says, "You pick what to watch next," in our own, rudimentary, intra-apartment language.
I used my Apple TV to turn on the first episode of "Carnivale".
A week later, without an ounce of my urging, Ryan completed watching the whole first season.
The other day, I was looking for some good television shows to download. I came across a show called "Tell Me You Love Me."
Now, I listen to Howard Stern a lot. I know a lot of people outside of New York "don't get it," but Stern is funny, intelligent, and sometimes caters to a lower register - if you will - but it's all for the sake of humor. And where I come from - where a lot of New Yorkers come from - it's okay to hurt feelings if you're funny. So Stern doesn't care who he offends, as long as the laugh is there.
Stern occasionally talks about the HBO show, "Tell Me You Love Me", and he loves it, so I thought I'd give it a try.
I downloaded the first season, and last night I watched Episode 1.
It's brilliant.
Of course, thirty seconds into the first episode, I thought, "Hey! That's Jonesy! From Carnivale!"
The guy's name is Tim Dekay - and he's a magnificent actor. He was great in Carnivale, and here he is, jerking off in bed while his wife takes a shower in the first five minutes of a new HBO series. This is going to be great!
It's important to note here that Tim Dekay was also (although briefly) on the television show "Sports Night" - one of the greatest television series of all time.
So last night, I dedicated myself to watching a new show - and this is important for me, because I really don't watch much television at all. In fact, the only shows I've committed to watching are "The Simpsons", "Californication", and "Entourage". Watching TV is really just a Sunday night thing for me.
But from here on out, I'm dedicated to "Tell Me You Love Me". Right after I finish the first season.
And then that whole serendipity thing happened.
I walked into work today, and as always, I took a broad look around my sales floor, like Mufasa perusing the Saharan landscape. It's one of the things they teach you to do in Retail Manager School.
One of the thing I immediately noticed was a T-Shirt. It read "Ithaca is Gorges". I'd seen the shirt before, but never here.
Now, if my father has taught me anything - if "Sports Night" has taught me anything - it's that there is no such thing as a good pun. "Ithaca Is Gorges" is not funny. But Jesus H. Titty-Fucking Christ, how does a terrible pun like that walk into my store?
I'm in Northridge, California. I'm three thousand miles away from Ithaca.
And Ithaca is an afternoon drive away from where I was born.
I've got to say hello.
"Hey, nice shirt," I said.
"Have you been to Ithaca?"
"I grew up on the Onondaga Indian Reservation. It's about..."
"Yeah - between Ithaca and Syracuse!"
He looked right at me, and smiled like we were old friends. It was Jonesy. Tim Dekay!
He said, "I grew up in Ithaca! Went to LeMoyne College."
"Yeah. I know LeMoyne. I went there, too."
The strangest thing about it was, I watched the first episode of his new show roughly eight hours before shaking his hand. And he went to the same tiny college in Upstate New York I did. And he asked if he could take a picture with me!
Now, it's pretty cool to meet someone from Upstate New York in Southern California. But during our conversation, I wanted to let him know that I recognized who he was. I said, "I'm a big 'Carnivale' fan."
He said, "Thanks for saying something. You have to start watching 'Tell Me You Love Me'."
"Oddly enough, I watched the first episode last night. I heard Stern talking about it..."
"Yeah! Howard loves us!" he interrupted.
I'd love to describe the situation as surreal, but I know that I control everything in the universe and all its goings-on, so as the entire situation developed, I have to admit, I was largely unsurprised.
*
In other news, you should definitely check out the HBO series "Tell Me You Love Me." It's a beautiful dissection of every failed relationship in which I've ever been involved.
Yours too, I'd imagine.
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