Your weirdest experience

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 8:38 am

I'm sure we have all experienced some weird moments in our lives - funny, tragic, surprising or just strange. Something that seemed incomprehensible or surrealistic, at least at the time.

One of mine:

I was visiting a small place I've been to before, so I knew several people there from my previous visits. I was walking across a square when this guy looks at me at smiles. Since I have a really horrible memory for faces, I always say hello to people who indicate they recognise me - when I was younger it happened sometimes that people thought I was intentionally ignoring them when I didn't recognise them. So, this guy smiles and nods at me, and I think "aha, that must be somebody I met last time", so I nod back. He crosses over to my side and starts a conversation. While we chat, I study his face and I become more and more conviced I know this person, I just can't place him, but I believe he's a friend of a friend of mine who lives there. After a while, he suggests we have a cup of coffee, and since I have nothing better to do, I agree. After having talked for about an hour, he tells me he's from another country. I got very confused. Finally, I asked him "so, I haven't met you before?" and he looks at me like I was crazy and replies "no, of course not".
After this meeting, I thought a long time of why I had been thinking I recognised him when we clearly had never met before, but I found no solution and forgot about the whole thing.
Weeks later when I came home, I saw a ballet with Michail Baryshnikov, the famous dancer, and realised - that's why the guy had looked so familiar, he was a dead ringer of Baryshnikov. Well, it was a nice meeting

Post yours!

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 9:03 am

Another one (this was when I was a teenager):

I was travelling with some friends, and we had been to a music festival, partying hard for 3 days and hadn't slept at all. One of my friends took a little nap, and when she awoke, she was very upset and claimed she had no left foot and that she must go looking for her lost foot. Then she ran away with surprising speed, I ran after her, shouting her name, trying to explain that she must be dreaming, but she wouldn't listen, instead, she jumped on a bus that aptly passed by.
I went back to the others, explained what has happened and we started to look for our lost friend. It was a small place, but she was nowhere to be found, and we had to leave with a bus at a certain time in order to not miss our connection back home. We were of course very worried about our friend, especially since she obviously was in a highly confused state, but we decided that the only thing we could to was to report her disappearance to the police when we came back to the city. When the bus left, we where all feeling pretty down.
The trip back to the town we were travelling from took quite a while, and we were discussing what could have happened to our friend. When the bus stopped at the train station, we all got a big surprise - there she sat, at a bench, reading a newpaper and looking like nothing had happened! Seeing me, she said: "Oh there you are, I was just starting to wonder when you would show up - we have to leave pretty soon". I was totally dumbfunded. It turned out that she didn't remember anything at all about the last hours, she only had an (erranous) belief that we had agreed on meeting at the station before going home. When I related to her how she had ran away, she just looked confused and replied "what are you talking about, I've been sitting here waiting for hours".

Much later, when we had discussed the event, it turned out that she had a vague memory of the situation before she ran away. She remembered sitting at a bench, looking down at her right leg and seeing her foot was cut off, she only saw blood dripping from the cut and some gory mess of pulp and sinew. She had panicked and ran away, not realizing that she wouldn't be able to run if her foot was cut off. She didn't remember taking a bus anywhere, her next memory was that she was waiting for us at the train station. And no, she had not taken any drugs, I don't even think she had had much alcohol, but long sleep deprivation can induce very strange states of mind.

EMINEM · Post by **EMINEM** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 9:10 am

I was at the subway station on the way to a new church opening when I noticed a young women standing on the platform dressed in similar Sunday attire, looking this way and that. " Ah," thought I, "a fellow parishioner in need of directions!" So I walked up to her with a big smile on my face, introduced myself, and gave her a "fellowship" hug, all the while telling her that "I know the way," and, "Perhaps we could go to the church together?" She looked at me curiously, and replied, "What church?"

EMINEM · Post by **EMINEM** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 9:21 am

This one happened when I was a teenager, but I remember the day clearly.

My little brother (who was seven at the time) were walking through the neighborhood Mall, and decided to get some ice cream at Laura Secord. On the display counter were some free chocolate almond samples in a little basket, which I told my brother NOT to touch. I turned to the proprietor to order two vanilla cones. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a little hand grab a chocolate almond! "DON'T!" I shouted, slapping the hand away.

I then turned around to rebuke my brother. Instead, I saw a little old lady, rubbing her hand, and staring back at me in shock.

Leonardo · Post by **Leonardo** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 10:05 am

Time pockets

On two ocasions:

- I was walking with a friend about 2PM, nothing else to do until 6PM. We were passing in front of the "Aquário" (I live in a seaside city, the Aquário is a VERY small "Sea World" sort of place, a few tanks with fishes, a lone seal, you can stroll in and see everythin in under 1 hour) and decided to enter. When we left, it was already dark, and looking at the clock we found out that it was almost 7PM. We didn´t stay inside for more than 1 hour, I can garantee!

- 2 years ago, on the Gladiator premiére, we (me and the same friend on the Aquário incident) entered at 10PM and were delighted with the movie. Left the movies and were surprised that the movie took under 2 hours, it was 11:50PM when we left. Next day we discovered the movie was supposed to be 2 and a half hours long, so we went to see it again that night, fearing that we might have stumbled on a cutted version. The movie we saw that night was identical, but ended at 12:40. It was not a malfunctioning clock problem, since I checked the clock when I arrived home on the day before, it was just before 1AM

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 10:44 am

I remember once being on a train to Paris, from Amsterdam. I was an exchange student at the time, and had entered a compartment occupied by an attractive young woman and two men, all of college age. She was the only one who spoke some English, and told me that they were Algerian students visiting abroad.

Within about ten minutes, both of the guys had started making up to her, shall we say. Another fifteen minutes later, three more of the group (at least, they appeared that way) came in, and also came over, elbowing their friends out of the way, to put the moves on the lady. Not to be outdone, the dislodged pair did their best to climb over their pals, and continue their ministrations. Another fifteen minutes--another pair of Algerians, who joined the merry throng. It was like some bizarrely amusing twist on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. They were literally pushing and pulling one another out of the way, in the politest way possible, while the young lady just sat there, seemingly oblivious, smiling quietly through it all.

I just grinned slightly, noting some of the stranger and more vigorous attempts at interaction, read a bit, looked out the window, etc. Before Paris, the group left. Ah, the charm of unintentionally pagan cults.

Strangely enough, another weird encounter occurred on a train. This happened about eight years ago, when my wife and I took a night train down from Budapest to Sofia. It was supposedly an express, going through Yugoslavia, but by some tacit arrangement (probably involving the exchange of money) it became a local, stopping every few minutes to let on the scrubbiest, dingiest looking folks, a few at a time. They appeared as though they were out of a warzone--which, in fact, they very well were. At one point, a unshaven but intelligent looking man sat down opposite us, and tried to start a conversation. I indicated we couldn't speak the language--using English, of course--and he said, "Americans?" We nodded yes. He gave us a long look filled with wonder and despair, then sighed. We sighed, too.

That was about 3 AM. The compartment was supposedly first class for six, but it was holding ten shortly thereafter, with several stretched out on the floor, snoring. A few lit up cigarettes. I opened the window. It was about 40 Fahrenheit, and the train had picked up speed. Shortly thereafter, the men with the cigarettes snuffed them out, and closed the window, nodding seriously at me. I nodded back.

My wife, who hides her emotions rather well, told me later that would be the last trip we'd take through that region probably in our lifetimes.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 12:39 pm

@MM: LOL, very sweet

@Leonardo: You and your friend must be living in an alternative universe

Originally posted by fable
It was supposedly an express, going through Yugoslavia, but by some tacit arrangement (probably involving the exchange of money) it became a local, stopping every few minutes to let on the scrubbiest, dingiest looking folks, a few at a time.

The opposite to one of my travelling-by-train experiences - I was somewhere in the Alps (I don't remember where, this was many years ago, I had been climbing somewhere), and I had planned to take a train from one town to another. As usual, I was a bit late and had to rush to enter the train just before they closed the doors. Relieved, I sank back into the chair and looked out of the window when the train started to move - in the wrong direction! It turned out to be the express train to Amsterdam(!) - no stops. Well, so I got to see Amsterdam

VoodooDali · Post by **VoodooDali** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 12:51 pm

@CE: I saw Baryshnikov walking down 6th Avenue about a year ago. Didn't seem like anyone else but me recognized him. He was really short!

@Leonardo: I had a weird experience with time like that. I was at a place called Placencia in Belize. I had just arrived and checked into my room. I went across the way to a little bar. I ordered a rum and coke. (Belizean rum) I watched the sunset, then went to my room for a while. I was certain that hours had gone by and it was about midnight. I went back over to the bar and found out it was only 7 PM. I told them to give me more of that Belizean rum, it put me in a time warp!

This reminds me of another weird experience. I was in Honduras. A friend of mine introduced me to this boy--he was around 12 years old--and told me to give him my hand. I did. He held it for a minute and said that there was something wrong with my stomach. I remember thinking, yeah right. It actually sort of pissed me off. A month later I was diagnosed with a peptic ulcer.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 1:56 pm

Originally posted by VoodooDali
@CE: I saw Baryshnikov walking down 6th Avenue about a year ago. Didn't seem like anyone else but me recognized him. He was really short!

The coffee with the stranger I thought I know was over 10 years ago - it seems I had more weird experiences when I was younger

The guy I met was also Russian, a bit younger and a bit larger than Baryshnikov perhaps - most ballet dancers are really small, it's an advantage in jumps and other acrobatic movements. At the time I was still doing ballet myself, so of course I knew what all famous dancers looked like.

My bad face memory not only makes me believe I know people because they look similar to famous people, it works the other way around too.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 2:01 pm

My only experience with a ballet dancer was when one of the more prominent members of a local troupe was scheduled to come on-air, live, and give a pitch during a pledge drive of the public radio station I managed at that time. She spent the thirty minutes she had beforehand exercising around the hallway in a manic fashion, her eyes intense but focused on nothing in particular; come a few minutes before airtime, she was a babbling ball of trembling nerves, swearing repeatedly that she could never go on, that she just couldn't, that I had to understand... Of course, I did. I spent five minutes just reassuring her, and sent her home, and took the break, myself. Poor thing.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 2:11 pm

Two weird experiences, both with random people.

1) Me and a friend were walking out of a bank (no swag

) when we move out the way to let this man pass us, we didn't say anything and he says, "You kids today, you should all be sent to the army, that will straighten you out". To this day i have no idea what we did, or how we offended him

2) While waiting to cross the street an old man said to me "i couldn't stay there anymore, i didn't want to take the pills anymore, they didn't like me, they tasted bad. I erm said "that's good" and then quickly moved across the street

Leonardo · Post by **Leonardo** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 2:34 pm

Isn´t that a common experience, instead of weird?
I always meet old people mumbling, complaining and hurling insults at youngsters for no reason... I always feel like getting older faster so I can insult people with impunity

Speaking of older people, on my last birthday me and my friends went pub crawling and while we walked from one pub to the next a homeless child comes to beg at us. One of my friends gave her some change, and then she turns to one of my other friends, the eldest on the gang (at age 33), the one we call "Old Bastard", so the child look deeply at him and says "DAD!", hugs him, and run away. We were stunned for a few moments before bursting into laughter. This friend´s girlfriend gave him a enraged (fake) look to put the icing on the cake!

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 2:43 pm

This is not my experience, but one of a friend - since the recent discussion concerned the elderly

My friend was happily vacuuming her carpet one Saturday morning, when there was a knock at the door. She opened the door to find an elderly lady standing there in her carpet slippers. The elderly lady was well spoken and went on to explain to my friend that a good friend of hers had been taken into hospital some 5 miles away and would my friend mind so much to give her a lift to her family home close by to the hospital so that she may visit her son and his wife, who would then take her up to visit her friend. My friend said of course and helped this lady into her car and ran her five miles up the road. Eventually this elderly lady picked out a stately home and said 'here it is!'. Convincing my friend that she would be ok and her son would give her a lift home, my friend left the elderly lady here....

That night, there was a knock on my friend's door and the police invited themselves in to question her. It appears this elderly lady was a resident at a local home, did not know anyone in the area she had been dropped off in, did not have a friend in hospital, and had been found wandering aimlessly - my friend had a hard job convincing the law she had not abducted her!

VoodooDali · Post by **VoodooDali** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 4:08 pm

Originally posted by Mr Sleep
Two weird experiences, both with random people.

1) Me and a friend were walking out of a bank (no swag ) when we move out the way to let this man pass us, we didn't say anything and he says, "You kids today, you should all be sent to the army, that will straighten you out". To this day i have no idea what we did, or how we offended him

2) While waiting to cross the street an old man said to me "i couldn't stay there anymore, i didn't want to take the pills anymore, they didn't like me, they tasted bad. I erm said "that's good" and then quickly moved across the street

Sounds like our old hermit friends on SYM...

Gwalchmai · Post by **Gwalchmai** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 4:35 pm

All this talk about old people is making me nervous....

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 4:40 pm

I said elderly - not old!!

j/k *hug*

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 4:44 pm

Originally posted by Gwalchmai
All this talk about old people is making me nervous....

I know what you mean. Me, I'm getting the flintlock ready, just in case.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 4:48 pm

@fable,

LMAO!

T'lainya · Post by **T'lainya** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 4:59 pm

Originally posted by fable

I know what you mean. Me, I'm getting the flintlock ready, just in case.

You and your modern toys fable

What next?? One of those new-fangled telegraph thingies??

Gwalchmai · Post by **Gwalchmai** » Thu Mar 07, 2002 5:01 pm

Originally posted by T'lainya

You and your modern toys fable What next?? One of those new-fangled telegraph thingies??

Humph! It'll never beat my smoke signals!