A glitch in the Matrix

Earlier this evening, I IMed my friend Ji-in that I had another one of my déjà vu moments while in Chicago over the weekend. (And no, I'm not referring to the strip club.)

She replied with "glitch in the Matrix."

Makes you wonder. Perhaps there's someone or something controlling my life as if I were a character in the Sims game.

I haven't had a déjà vu moment in a while, but I used to have them frequently. Experiencing one always freaks me out. Did I dream it before it happened? Sometimes I think I dreamt the moment a year before.

Dreams also weird me out sometimes. For example, last month I dreamt that my great uncle in northern California had died. Later that day I called my mom to make sure everything was OK. I couldn't reach her at home or on her cell, but I left a message just saying to please call me back. My mom calls back later crying because she had found out that her uncle, who has prostate cancer, had a turn for the worse. I told her about my dream, and she wasn't surprised. She's had dreams like that, too. Even though were not biologically related, she thinks we have a connection on a different level. "Like mother, like daughter," or "You are your mother's daughter," she likes to say.

Another experience in college has always puzzled me. My friend, I'll just refer to her as my unni (언니), and I were planning to go to a new local attraction on my birthday. We decided to use the outing, but not my birthday, as an excuse to invite this Korean guy I had a crush on to join us. We had hung out casually on campus, but nothing more than that. I was thrilled when he accepted our invitation, but neither I nor my unni told him that it would be my birthday.

The big day finally arrived, we picked him up and laughed when we saw him. He was wearing a pink polo shirt. We were all wearing pink. What a nice start to my birthday. (I think men look hot wearing pink.) Unfortunately, since we all looked a bit silly in pink, he changed his shirt.

Anyway, later as we were walking along, he told us how he had this dream the night before, which was unusual since he never dreams or remembers them. He continued to describe the dream for us: He was out with some friends, and turns out that it is one of his friend's birthday but he didn't know it.

My unni and I just looked at each other with our eyes huge. He saw us and asked my unni if it was her birthday. She shook her head no. He then looked at me and asked me. All I could do was nod my head, embarrassed and yet confused. Did we have some sort of connection? Did my obsessive thinking of him somehow get transmitted to him? Perhaps even the pink shirts were a sign of our connection.

Fortunately, that experience ended positively, resulting in one of the best birthdays ever. After learning it was my birthday, my crush took us out later that evening to celebrate my birthday.