Hehe... that happens to me all the time. The last three times I have noticed, my total private message count has been 173, 177, and now its at 179.
I notice team numbers everywhere, as my close friends know. Whenever I drive down the street, I shout out "Wildstang!" "Watertown!" "Technokats!"... etc, until it drive people crazy.
I also like calling out the team numbers while walking down the halls of hotels. Usually, there are FIRSTers with me (because most of my travel is due to FIRST) and they join in on the fun.
However, it must seem strange to the random people we walk by when I randomly yell out "Exploding Bacon!" and I am responded to with an exuberant "Oink Oink Boom!"
My most recent favorite was when our flight number down to Atlanta from Hartford was 111. When I got my boarding pass and saw the flight number, my eyes lit up and I shouted "Wildstang!" to my team mates. The lady at the counter didn't seem nearly as excited though.