I watched the sun rise in Dubai this morning. More like creep slowly up the windows across from my hotel room. I’ve traveled through here enough for it to feel familiar – not home, but comfortable. I’m finding favorite haunts and creating rituals.

One of my Dubai rituals is getting a coffee at the Costa Coffee stand before my flight. Doesn’t matter if it’s day or night, coffee must be had. This morning was no different – except that a stranger joined me across the two-couch table.

She had the air of a fellow Pacific North Westerner – Nike skirt & light layers that only a PacNW girl can pull off! I had to smile when she cracked out “Eat, Pray, Love”. I’d read the book when it came out and well before I even left Afghanistan to come home for my R&R a girls’ night out was planned to see the movie.

We sat in silence for nearly an hour before she asked what time it was. Somehow we ended up in a conversation. She’d just ended a relationship and was at loose ends so thought she’d tour India and SE Asia. A friend of hers had given her Eat, Pray, Love and she was soaking up the similarities between her situation and the main characters.

We talked of traveling, of our family’s reaction to it and of just knowing that you’re meant to be doing what you’re doing even when it doesn’t make sense to anyone but you.

We chatted until our planes were about to board. I introduced myself as “Jo”. She was stunned.

“No, way! I’m Jo!” she said. “It’s short for Jolynne.”

It was my turn to be stunned. I’ve never met anyone who shares my name. The closest I’ve come is meeting a man who was married to a Jolyn.

“My dad’s name was John and my mother’s name was Linda,” she rushed on.

I fumbled for my boarding pass, smirking.

“No way is your name Jolynne!” she said as  I continued to smirk.

It was one of those totally strange moments I only seem to have when I travel. Sitting in an airport half way around the world from home chatting with a girl from Seattle who essentially has my same name…. and who was named about the same way I was (my father’s name being Joe not John).

The most interesting things happen…but only when I travel!