Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign...

And the sign says "Long-haired freaky people need not apply"... well, that's the sign the Five Man Electrical Band sang about in 1971...but that's not the sign I'm singing about in 2009.

I'm talking about those feelings in your gut that force you to make a major life decision; or that significant song with the cutting lyrics that plays on the radio (and over and over in your head) when you are thinking about someone or something; or that crazy coincidence that stops you in your tracks and makes you say "Uh oh;" or that person poking at their laptop in Starbucks who you drum up conversation with, who happens to have the same name as your mother or long lost friend, which in turn reminds you to give them a call. These signs can make you do the right thing...and sometimes the wrong thing...but they almost always make you do something...irrespective of research, logic, reason or intelligence...simply based on a feeling. Cool. Crazy. Crazy cool.

"Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs. Blocking out the scenery, breakin' my mind. Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?"

Was talking with my "sorella-amica" (translated: sister-friend) about this phenomena... She took it one step further. "Karma is always in play," she said. She then told me a story about giving a store clerk back the dollar in extra change he'd handed her, figuring the cosmic forces would bestow her with good fortune in gratitude. "The next day I got slapped with a $75 emergency delivery fee for oil...nice." Her sign from all of this: "Be good to be good, not because you're looking for the pay day." Good sign to heed...on many levels.

I have had many a sign go awry...oddly enough, all related to men. There was the guy who told me his name was "Al" (like my dad) and who was born a day away from his birthday. I was sure he was going to be "the one." And then over drinks he told me he likes to give his nephews a treat and sleep in the same bed as them when he visits. Yep -- the sign said "RUN ANDY RUN -- AND DON'T LOOK BACK!"

Then there was this cool guy who was a serious fan of a major band from the 80s and 90s...great music but not what I typically listen to on the radio. As the relationship swayed back and forth (in my head), jumping in and out of a "is he into me or not" state of purgatory, I'll be damned if the cosmic forces didn't taunt me with repeated tracks from this same band on every radio station I tuned into... My friends said it was a sign...uhhh, no. Classic case of something you may "want" to be a sign but isn't... and lazy DJs. Nonetheless, the probability still makes it pretty freaky. Gotta love your girlfriends at times like this. They are great when it comes to deluding you. They're all "OMG -- like that is totally such a sign." Truth is it's just really good conversation over Cabernet.

On the other hand, I remember talking to my cousin about the man she was dating whose last name, although of a different ethnicity, was eerily pronounced like her maiden name. Yes, she married him...and yes, I told her it was a sign and she would marry him (after her first date).

I often pay attention to signs...admittedly, not road ones...in fact, my sense of direction is pitiful. But my sense of direction in life, and my purpose and the meaning of the people, places, relationships and potential around me are many times driven by signs (mixed with 1 part book- and 3 parts street-smarts).

"Hey baby, what's your sign?"

Can't discuss signs and cosmic forces without mentioning astrology. I am a raging Aquarian...eccentric, creative, passionate -- the works. According to my astrological sign I am in for a year of total fabulosity -- a year the planets have not seen in over a decade. Apparently the past 12 have sucked...and I am not arguing. Well, the significant day for all of this success in love, finances, career and health begins today -- February 4th -- which also happens to be my mother's 80th birthday. Now, I don't know about you, but I take that as a very good sign...

Signing off,
Andy