May 11, 2008
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Coincidences
I have more, but I will only share three, two of which have happened recently.
Friday night I went to Waffle House around midnight with a few of my friends and one of my sisters. Now keep in mind that I am in college so my high school class of 500 has dispersed to many colleges all over the map, and thus many of my former classmates I will never see again. We were walking to the cash register as I glanced at my check for the first time, which read $5.07. Also of note, I used to be an obssessive runner until I got injured early in high school, and runners tend to see things like times on a clock or numbers anywhere else as running times for certain distances. So I thought, “Was that my mile PR (personal record) in 8th grade? Nooo, it wasn’t. I ran 5:03. Oh, I know who ran that time, it was Zach Trisel.” This was a quick thought as I glanced at my check, and then my face shot up and, lo and behold, who did I see sitting twenty feet away on the other side of the restaurant from where we had been sitting? Zach Trisel! What the heck! My mind exploded instantly. I walked over to him immediately and told him what happened, and he explained that he had actually just been talking about me. Wow! The whole thing had me spinning in a frenzy. Very rarely will you see some random thing which will make you think of a person you have an extremely low probability of ever seeing again, and then see them in the very next moment.
A few weeks ago after having stayed up studying all Tuesday night until Wednesday morning I was sitting at a red light on my way to school. As I waited, I casually glanced up at the rearview mirror only to be stunned at what was behind me. It was a car with a 20-something white male driving, and a scrawny Indian girl with glasses in the passenger seat—the exact same car and people that had been directly behind me the previous Wednesday! I was blown away! I even considered getting out of the car and knocking on their window to tell them what had happened. I also recalled that the girl had had a killer sneeze the week before. In a city of 750,000 people (with even more in the suburbs) and being on my way to a university of 50,000 students, after having left at an irregular time, this was truly remarkable.
Last one is a quickie. Two summers ago I was sitting by a campfire with my friend Kevin as stars freckled the sky through the opening in the treeline above. We sat in quietness until Kevin cashed in a thought by asking, “Phil, you know one thing I want to see before I die?” Immediately I thought the Northern Lights, and just as I did so I turned to him as he said after a brief pause, “The Northern Lights.” My response of “WHAT!” somewhat confused him until I explained that I had seriously thought his answer the moment he asked the question. Now that’s pretty fey.
There are others, and even more I can’t remember, but here are the highlights. Can anyone top that first one? I mean, that coincidence was cooked to perfection. It really upset the waitresses on duty because they had to spend a full half-hour cleaning my brains of the walls and floor.
Hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day!
Comments (11)
I love coincidences. They make you think someone’s watching.
That’s pretty fascinating! i love coinicidences too.
I find it so cool that runners memorize times that they ran in. Sort of makes me wish I was good at running. I never had the endurance for it.
Speaking of coincidences, I saw my best friend at a concert I went to this past weekend, but we never told each other we were going to that concert. Haha doesn’t really top your story though…
Once on the way back in the church van from a youth group outing, my friend Corey and I were trying to guess an exact date that the other person was thinking. Of course we could never guess any certain date…we were mostly off by months. Except for once. I guessed March 18th….and Corey’s jaw dropped to the floorboards. So that is 1 in 365. haha.
Have had similar experiences, but can’t say any would top the 5:07 story.
I think there’s more to some of these sorts of events than meets the eye.
I’ll think of that every time I’m in an automatic bathroom.
I cannot top your first coincidence. I do have a good one, though. I was in Madison to see my sister, and we went out for drinks. We picked a bar on Willy Street. It was Halloween night. I noticed a man playing pool wearing a Buckethead hat and wig. The wig reminded me of Joe, a former co-worker and friend, who used to wear a huge afro and various other outrageous wigs while performing with his band Way Off the Horse. I thought to myself, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if Joe were here tonight?” So I began scanning the room. I did not have to scan far, as Joe was sitting at the bar not 5 feet from Buckethead. The whole thought/scan/recognize process took maybe 2 seconds.
I went and said hi, reaching out to shake his hand. By that time of the evening, we both were in the “I love everyone” drunk phase, and he said “No way man, you’re getting a hug,” and I gladly obliged. We talked about old times and what was going on. He said it was a hell of a coincidence, because he never goes out anymore, being a family man. He told me about his new band, and about a song he had written called “Bullshit.” He knew I would appreciate this part: He used a Bible as a prop for the song, and would point at it during the chorus and shout “Bullshit!” The crowd was eating it up (that’s Madson for you), and at the end of the song, he drop-kicked it! Wish I could have been there.
I have a funny coincidence. Three of us at like an IHOP in three different cars. We are going back to one of the apartments that we don’t know the location. We are to follow one of them. One in the lead. However, the two of us follow the wrong car that is similar to the one we were supposed to follow. So we are following this car all over town when I figure out finally, this guy is trying to shake us. We are following the wrong car! This guy is freaking out because he thinks we are trying to follow him and maybe beat him up or something. Finally, the car stops at an apartment. I get out of the car to tell my friend we have been following the wrong car. I find out the wrong car we have been following is actually another friend of mine. He looks at me and says something like, ”Ted? why are you and this guy following me?” lol. Oh dear Lord that was too funny. We laughed about that for hours. What a weird set of events.
i have a good one. i was going on a road trip with my friend and my friendf wnated to play a game. so we played the lisence plate game of course, the very first one she called was New York. and i was like awesome you never see New York cars in Ohio!, where? I turned my head to notice it was one of my good friends friend who i probably hadn’t seen in months lol. and it turned out we were both going to basically the same place. wieeeeeeeerd. it also reminds you that its a small world.
yeah…. how do people get featured? I guess the xanga people look at how many people got recommended posts or whatever… and if the person has a post that they think is nice they put it up. I have no idea, really.
That first one’s pretty stinkin cool. I know that I have some, but right now they are hiding in my memory somewhere. Anyway, thanks for the fun read.