Random encounters (NVR)
I had another random encounter on Sunday. My hubby and I were up in NH visiting my sis-in-law and her hubby. She said there was a Trader Joe's nearby (Nashua, NH) and I wanted to check it out, so we went. The three of us were standing in the snack aisle when my SIL goes "Is that Higgins?" All 3 of us were accounting majors at URI and had this same professor. My hubby was like, "What the heck would Higgins be doing up here in NH?" so he asked me to look. So I looked, and it was him! Now the 3 of us are standing there staring at this poor guy, who turns and looks at us, and I could tell that he sorta recognized us (we graduated 10, 8, and 7 years ago) so we said hello and told him how we thought it was him, but were like, what the heck is he doing in this TJ's in NH LOL. He said his son had a soccer tournament. Anyway it was really funny.
Then I got to thinking..members of my family and I had some pretty funny and random encounters over the years. We're all from RI but have run into people in far away places. Here's a sample:
1. When my older brother was in 9th grade, we all went to Disney World for vaca. Now, in 9th grade, he must have been 14. He decided to play with my younger brother and I in some kiddie land or something. He went down a tube slide and landed at the feet of his junior high French teacher ;D and somehow had to explain why he was in kiddie land.
2. My Mom and Dad went on vaca last year and stopped in a diner somewhere in FL. Sitting a couple of tables away was my Mom's sister (they've been estranged for like 20 years).
3. I was reading the newspaper a couple of weeks ago and noticed a picture of Pres Bush with some troops in Iraq. A soldier standing right next to Bush was a girl I worked with in Germany 5 years ago. I knew it was her because her name was on her uniform (I emailed her to confirm it was her!)
I know there have been more but those were the ones I could think of off the top of my head. Have you had any funny random encounters?
Just yesterday this man goes to me is your name so and so my mothers name he said. I go no I walk away.
He says was your fathers name he said it. It was our neighbor from maybe 30 years ago.
I went to a meditation retreat over Memorial Day this year and about 15 minutes after arriving in walks my Intro to Religion professor from the first college I went to 15 years ago in another state. There were a dozen people there for the retreat.
What was so cool about it was he was the first person to introduce me to the idea of meditation as a spiritual pursuit; I had been raised in a fundamentalist baptist style-of-the-moment (Mom couldn't make up her mind) and never knew that western people did that sort of thing until I took that class. He had a HUGE impact on my life especially considering I knew him for all of 4 months and was in a class of 40 (he did not remember me; I was not terribly memorable at 18). It was incredible to be able to tell him how much influence his class and personality had on my life.
And I knew, without doubt that it was meant for me to be at that place, at that time, for that reason.
"Ya know you're on the right path when..."
All 3 of us were accounting majors at URI and had this same professor.
I went to URI for a year and a half. One of my roommates was an accounting major. Is this a random encounter?! ;)
All 3 of us were accounting majors at URI and had this same professor.
I went to URI for a year and a half. One of my roommates was an accounting major. Is this a random encounter?! ;)
LOL URI is like 6 degrees of separation..
I just thought of another one...I moved to my neighborhood about 3.5 years ago. It's about 45 minutes from my hometown. I went to a neighborhood cookout. I started talking to this lady. So I mentioned where I was from...yada yada yada turns out she went to nursing school with my Mom 35 years ago and they used to be good friends back then.
1. my parents went to hawaii for vacation a couple years ago and went to some luau thing and got seated at a table with a couple from the same town as them.
2. i used to work for this guy who's agent i had to call. when the agent called me back he said he noticed the area code was from michigan and he was originally from michigan. he asked where i grew up and where i went to church when i was younger. it turns out that he is really close friends with the pastor of the church i was confirmed at 12 or so years ago. small world.
1. my parents went to hawaii for vacation a couple years ago and went to some luau thing and got seated at a table with a couple from the same town as them.
2. i used to work for this guy who's agent i had to call. when the agent called me back he said he noticed the area code was from michigan and he was originally from michigan. he asked where i grew up and where i went to church when i was younger. it turns out that he is really close friends with the pastor of the church i was confirmed at 12 or so years ago. small world.
Stuff like this is totally cool to me....I'm always amazed at who I run into in the most random of places.
I was at a meeting full of people I didn't really know and we were all just talking about ourselves. (I was in RI at the time) I said I was living in Key West. This guy said, "oh, I have some friends that sold their business and moved down there not too long ago." I was like "oh, what are their names, maybe I know them since KW is so small." And he told me their names and it was MY GRANDPARENTS!!!
Oh man I love stories like this!
I was just on the American Apparel website, and the model was my best friend in high school (we have since grown apart). I emailed her and she confirmed it was her.
A guy I met while travelling, Damien, was walking up a hill in a remote part of Ireland, and coming down the hill was another guy. As the guy came closer, he called out 'Damien!' Turned out he was an acquaintance from college. They went to a pub and got lashed.
Cool stuff like that never happens to me though.
hm, the only thing i can think of is when i visited portland in march and i saw someone with the same college sweatshirt as me and i was like 'do you go to cal poly?' and he said yeah, i said me too... and he was utterly unenthused. why did i even just tell that story?
Yesterday I was at my internship and my boss recently graduated from college. She just started and we were just talking. I college she went to. It turns out she's best friends with one of my friend from high school's girlfriend who went to the same college and graduated together.
I have always anticipated that this would happen...then when it did I was disappointed because I didn't much care for the person i met up with and the odds of that happening to me a second time are quite slim...so i was hoping to meet up with someone I was friends with or something...
A few months after I moved to CT a new girls tarted working at dunkin donuts where I got my coffee everyday. I told my friend she look just like this girl I wentot highschool with but didn't say anything to her for a few days...finally it was just to much for me and I had to confirm it was her...so i asked....did you go to school in southern Maine? and She said yes...and then I said the name of the school and she confirmed...and then She tried to remember who I was but she couldn't event hough we'd had two classes togetherr. I wasn't NOT friends with her...I just wasn't friends with her...you know?
I guess one that think is really cool was when I was in Bible college during the first few weeks i got to know a few people and many of them were MKs ((missionaries kids) and two happened to be from south Africa...so they both came and sat next to me during a basket ball game and I asked them..."so did you two grow up near one another" (thinking they were already acquainted) and they both said "NO! I grew up in S Africa!" and then they talked for a few minuets and realized they had indeed grown up in the same neighborhood... during the same years. Upon further inspection they found pictures of themselves together as little girls...they hadn't seen one anotehr in about 10 years or so....
I'm from SC and this summer I went to visit my friend in the Virgin Islands (he's also from SC). One night we were at a bar and talking to some people. In conversation, my friend said "I'm local, but she's visiting from Columbia, SC. The bartender perked up and said "I'm from South Congaree! (little town outside of columbia). My friend was like "No way, I'm originally from Pelion!" (town next to S. Congaree...they are both really small rural areas, but close together). Anyway, they knew a lot of the same people.
Oh I thought of another one! When I was a kid, my mom and I got stuck in Charleston with my mom's friend and her daughter (The car wouldn't start). This was way before cell phones and we didn't know what to do. Finally my mom convinced the parking attendant to let her use the garage phone to call a tow truck. When he got there, he said it was against the rules to let us ride with him, but he would do it anyway (it was getting dark and we were a little frightened). Anyway, he said he had just moved to SC from NYC and asked where we were from. My mom said, "oh a tiny little town in upstate SC, about 200 miles away...you wouldn't have heard of it." So he said, "Well my grandmother lives in Ware Shoals...is it near there?" My mom screamed "That's our town!!!" (which is 2000 people). It turned out, his grandmother shopped at my grandparents' Market every week.
Oh, I thought of another one...um, not exactly but it's a good story.
I started dating this guy in Las Vegas who was from Ethiopia. I was taking a cab to his house and didn't know where it was, nor did the cab driver. I called my guy and said asked him to give the cab driver directions. So I gave the driver my phone and I hear "Hello...hey, are you from Ethiopia??" and then started talking in another language. They were both Ethiopians living in America, didn't know each other...I thought that was really cool!
I was at an art show in Chicago a few years ago. There was an artist from the town in Massachusetts where I used to live many years ago. I asked her about it and told her my son was born there. I said, "Dr. Epstein delivered my son." She said, "He delivered my son too. " I told her the day my son was born. She told me her son was born on the same day, in the same hospital, delivered 30 minutes after my son by Dr. Epstein. He must have been very busy that day. Then my husband said, "Can't we go anywhere where you don't know somebody?"
My best most recent 'small world experience' was when my BF was in the hospital last year. I was talking to his respiratory therapist and it turns out that I bought my first set of skydiving gear from her around eight years ago. I never actually met or talked to her. The transaction happened through a mutual friend. Very random
The one I can think of is I met a man and his wife in Roatan, Honduras on a dive trip. They are from the States. A few years later I was walking down the street in Bimini, in the Bahamas and I see this man. I am thinking, why do I know him. It is the same man I met in Roatan. We sat and had a drink and discussed what a small world it really is.
Another one. My best friend at the time (years ago) and I went to Fish Creek in the Adirondacks. Who is on the campsite next to us...my parents good friends so we had to behave!
In one of my very first jobs, it transpired that my boss was married to someone who had been delivered by my grandmother (district nurse in a remote wee Scottish village at the time). Interesting that - especially since she remembered the birth when I mentioned it.
another one happened to me today!
i am working on this job and i look across the room and i see a guy i went to college with and havent seen in like 4 years. he's working on it too!
another i just thought of:
my ex's mom went into labor 26 (or so) years ago with my ex's sister, at home. the paramedics and fire dept came and delivered her in her moms bed. a few years ago, his mom needs a repairman or electrician or something and this guy comes to do the job. they get to chatting and he mentions he used to be a paramedic and somehow she mentions how she had a home birth (she had since moved to a new house).. anyway - it comes out that he helped deliver my ex's sister.