You sound like me where I was several years ago, noticing the same "coincidences" happening.
Do you meditate? Do you set intentions? When I began focusing on that, I noticed a lot more activity happening my way. One of the more recent really neat ones was when I decided I wanted to have an experience with contact of someone deceased, and I placed intent asking my guidance to put me in contact with a "safe experience", in other words nothing harmful or scary and something I could learn something from. I'm still a newbie too!
Immediately after I set that intent an old memory from 20 years ago came to mind clairvoyantly. It was about a date I had with a guy I went to high school with. I had not thought about him in many years, of course, so I had no idea why I was now thinking of him suddenly.
The next day I was on line registering for my 20th high school reunion and checking out the web site. Under the "Deceased" listing this guy's name was there! I of course had had no idea he was deceased, I mean I'm not even 40 yet. It's just weird to think of people you went to high school with as being deceased already.
Anyway, I don't call it mere coincidence that I was setting intent asking guidance for a contact experience with someone deceased and then I suddenly am reminded of a 20-year-old memory. What are the odds??? Obviously my request was answered, and it was answered in such a way so as to give me direct verification. I mean, me getting on the reunion website and finding he had died was pretty direct confirmation!
So anyway, I decided to test that process that took place. I surmised that since I had asked for something, got a memory pop in my head that seemed to be directly related to my request, and then get verification of it, I wondered if there was a way I could test that whole process to make sure it really was what it appeared to be, sort of like a scientist running a backup experiment to see if he gets the same results. Know what I mean?
So I told my guidance, "Ok, so if you set that up for me, I'd like to have another experience just like it. What I want to know is, if I have a memory of someone pop into my head spontaneously for no logical reason, does it mean that that person is thinking of me? Can I count on that being a form of contact?"
And immediately what came into mind was a memory from the first grade. In it I had finally stood up to a girl who was always such a bully, and because of it we ended up becoming best friends. I hadn't thought of her in many, many years and had no reason to think of her now. So I of course thought, ok this must be in direct response to what I just asked my guidance for.
Well, a few hours later that same girl sent me an email!!! She said she had been thinking of me and wanted to get in contact with me, and that she'd found my email address because of the upcoming high school reunion.
Of course I was overjoyed and blown away. It was so neat to have not only the first experience verified, but to also have the process of that kind of experience verified by the second experience.
Anyway, just like you said how you think of someone and then they phone you, it's the same thing. When we think about someone, we are making contact with them nonphysically, and sometimes we notice it by a feeling, thought, or memory of them. Most people don't notice it or they brush it off. But like I said, you sound like me many years ago. You are going to be opening yourself up to more experiences if you keep working on it.
I'm still learning from my experiences, trying to get past the shock stage and into the stage where I can actually do something in the moment. Like when I was receiving contact of the deceased friend, I wish I'd known to ask questions of him or get some kind of live conversation. So next time it happens, I at least know to try that. I've tried since, and of course I don't always get the fireworks display of communication I hope for. Most of the time it's just the imagination kind, which makes you think, "was I just making that up?" But that's part of the learning process too. Bruce is always reminding me "Just go along with it, trust it, and be open to the process of the experience. What do you have to lose by trying?"
That was a long ramble. I get excited about this stuff as you can see.