It's a small world...
 

Anyone out there have any stories about quite random and unexpected encounters? For example, this New Year's at a party, I met my best friend from elementary school who I haven't seen in 6 years. We just saw each other, and said "Oh my God, it's you!!!" Turns out, she goes to a Uni in the same city as me (well, we've both lived here for a while, so it's not that surprising), and even rushed the sorority I joined... She ended up in another GLO, though. We've just never gone to the same events, so we haven't seen each other till now. Just goes to show, it really is a small world...

Tell your stories!

Mine's kinda lame..but it's the best I have..lol :)

When I started to date TKE209, he told me about his old high school and all. Well, I almost hooked up with one the the band members from that same high school (that was like..my freshman year mind you..) All I told him was that the guys name was Travis and he played the tenor sax. Well, it ended up being his ex's little brother, in which he also played in a band with. It was interesting I guess at the time.. :D

On my way to the supermarket to buy dinner tonight, I ran into a guy I had dated in 2000. He looked cute (dammit) and said he would call me since he still had my number. It was weird because I was just thinking of him earlier today. I didn't tell him that. He told me that he was thinking of me the other day and wondered what was up with me. He told that I looked good. I was funny and a little obnoxious which is a quality he likes. ;) I will never rekindle things with him because he really hurt my feelings, but it was still fun to see him. I'm glad that I put on make up.

one of my sisters brought her then boyfriend to our house one day when she was running errands with him. he said hey, there's a random guy in our foyer, which of course got us curious to see him. when i walked out there i just looked at him a said hi. turns out that I have been to his house and everything, without kowing it.

A year or two after graduation, I was back on campus for a football game and was walking back uptown after halftime. There was a very cute young woman walking the same way, so I struck up a conversation.

Turns out she was an apartment mate of a girl I had dated briefly while in college -- but the best part is that my wife's brother was her high school debate coach.

Remember, this was on a campus of nearly 20,000 students.

Small world, indeed.

- I recently found out that my old theatre director in high school is an AGD from my chapter!!! I had no idea. One night I was in the chapter room randomly looking at old composites when I saw her! I can't even get ahold of her to tell her becuase she is in New York PRODUCING AIDA ON BROADWAY!!!!! How freaking cool is that?!

- My boyfriend lived in the apartment below my old roommate (before I lived with her, obviously :)). We had gone to parties at her apartment before we even knew each other.

I'm sure there are more instances, but I can't think of any right now

First of all, nucutiepie is back, after a looong posting absence.

Second, I went skiing out west for a week after school got out. As I am sitting on the plane in denver waiting to fly home, I see this person walking down the aisle of the plane who looks just like this guy I went to HS with - well, of course, it WAS him, and he was sitting directly behind me! We spent half the flight catching up! It was so random but a super nice surprise!!!

My ex-boyfriend and i were baby-sat by our religious grandmothers when we were very young. They brought us to church every afternoon, rosary sessions, etc. While talking one day, we realized that our grandparents patronized the same church, and what's more- they lived about 4 blocks away from each other, and even SAT NEXT TO EACH OTHER during weekly masses! Later, we discovered that all of this means we were more than likely attendants of the same mass on many different occassions throughout our childhoods! And we didn't meet until high school......it's always baffled me....!

in the past 2 years...
 

I moved here 2 years ago, and I knew no one aside from my husband. Now, I know that some of my mothers aunts and at least one of her uncles settled here, but I never met any of them. For the record, I believe the official count was 16 born, 14 surviving infancy, so we're not a small family.

I had joked with my mother about being related to everyone I saw and having no idea. (pop here is about 30,000) She told me that if I ran into anyone with a certain last name, we're related. So, several months after my move, I went to this little church down the street from my house. Lo and behold, one of the deacons had the last name she told me to watch for. I went back the following Sunday and met his wife. I had forgotten to say anything to him, so I told her what my mother had said. As it turns out, the deacon's wife is my mother's first cousin. She hadn't seen my mother since the 1950's.

This past April, I went back to my hometown for my band director's last concert before he retired. I ran into a couple who lived across the road from my parents when I was very young. I hadn't seen these people in over 4 years, so we played catch up. Come to find out, one of their sons lives maybe 2 miles from me now.

The most recent came from working on my family tree. I had some trouble finding my maternal grandfather -- he passed away 7 years before I was born, so all I knew was his name. I collected a few more details and posted a message on a genealogy board with what I knew. A few months ago, I got a message from a woman telling me that her children descend from my grandfather. Her message gave her location.... the same town as me.

There's the long story of how my boyfriend and I met and how our parents knew each other...how our mothers shared a bottle or prenatal vitamins...I think its in anohter thread..."how you met your SO" i think...

One day last spring, I was in the office for the on-campus apartments filling out a complaint about the swarm of mosquitos around our door...and I started randomly talking to another guy who was fillng out a maintenence request too. Turns out he 1.) lives in the same subdivision I do, 2.) grew up down the street from my cousin and I definitely remembered him from when he was a kid and 3.) his ex-girlfriend is good friends with my roomates. Small world, eh?

I do telemarketing...We were calling OH at the point in time and I got this one guy with a name that I just knew...Well he realized I was a telemarketer and said he couldn't talk.. I was like 'okay, but could I ask you a question real quick?' and he said yes... I was like 'did you ever live in NY?' and he said yes... and I asked him if he ever lived in this one town (population, like, six thousand at that time) and he said yes.. (i live in indiana now and have for about ten years).. Well, Turns out it was a guy my dad used to work with that I remembered that none of us had talked to in about 12 or so years. How wierd!!!! Might I also add that there were about 12 people working and we all go through about a thousand numbers a night.. Odd that I would get him, huh?

At U of Houston, the quad had a mixer with the basketball team (and some others I think) from A&M. A guy walked up and said my name. I turned and it was a friend from my HS in KANSAS!!! It was a shocker because I had moved to Texas after my sophomore year.

edited-This is even BIGGER.

My daughter called and told me one of HER new DG sisters was the daughter of a friend of MINE who was a DG at U of H!!!

One morning I was leaving the apt. of the guy I was seeing. He lived in Brooklyn. As I stepped onto the sidewalk I almost ran into a guy walking by. I looked up to say excuse me and the guy says, "Kathy?!" It was a friend of mine from high school (in Michigan) who I had not seen or talked to in over 5 years. He was in NY pursuing his acting. Even weirder was that we were on a random street in Brooklyn. He lived in Manhattan, I lived in Queens but we just both happened to be in Brooklyn that morning. Sometimes this city of 8 million people is SO small!

This is kinda a 2 part story:
My best guy friend goes to Villanova, Pa and is in a fraternity, and I go to Clemson, SC ... his fraternity brother, Mike, is from around clemson so this guy knows some people who go to clemson, so Mike gets on the phone and he was like.. i have a brother who goes to clemson [but i didnt know him], but we knew some of hte same people.

... Skip ahead driving home from school for christmas ...

I'm driving about an hour away from school to drive up to NJ, well my brother is passed out [he had too much to drink the night before, so i started out driving... i see some guy who I met a few weeks earlier through my ex- boyfriend, so i pass that guy [dave] and wave. Turns out we drive the 11 hour trip together, stopping to gether and whatnot. At the 2nd stop we start talking and he says that his brother goes to Villanova, and im like.. wow like 6 of my friends go there. We chat about fraternites etc... and it turns out that the guy that i talked to on the phone [mike] is this kid Dave's brother!!

I found it odd that this kid from the summer who i talked to on the phone, who is fraternity brothers/roommates with my best friend from home, is brothers with this kid who i met through my ex boyfriend at school!

[Dave and i hung out 2 times over break.. he drove an hour to see me both times!!]

I met my friends at a bar in Chicago after getting off work and a guy that was with them looked really familiar, but I didn't say anything until my friend mentioned his name. He was an old college friend of my guy friend's ex-girlfriend, and also a cousin of one of my good friends back at home. And I went to grade school in Belleville with him, he was in the class ahead of me. He said there were two other people that had been in my class up in Chicago too.

While on vacation in Clearwater, Fl., this past March I ran into a guy that I met my freshman year of college while he visited a friend in a fraternity that my friends were in. My friends and I were talking to his two friends when we started talking about where we were from and as he mentioned that he had a friend that went to the same school I did, it all clicked. I had only met the kid once but there he was again.

While talking to Corey (SigmaChiCard), I leardned the guy my cousin was dating last Christmas(granted she is 33 or so and her boyfriend was about 22) used to play soccer with Corey and came from the same hometown.

I have run into several people from my college in Chicago, which was in the southernmost part of Illinois, who I may have just seen once or twice at school. Last month, two of my AXO sisters and I were getting our hair done at a salon for a wedding and another girl there had gone to the same school we did and knew my friend's friends from grade and high school.

I met a mom whose daughter was an AXO when I did MEPS for the Air Force last year.

Thats all I can think of now, but it happens all the time.

Not as exciting as your all's, but...
 

When I was really young, my mom had to send me to day care at a local church all the time because she worked. One of my best friends while I was there was a little girl about my age with long blonde hair. Well, after I got older and started school, I never saw her again. Even though we lived in the same town, we had gone to different elementary schools and of course we never saw each other at the middle school because I was a grade behind her and each grade is separated into its own wing of the building so there's no interaction there. But my freshman year of high school, a new friend of mine from French class convinced me to sit at her table at lunch...and I couldn't believe it, because when I got to the table there sat the girl I had been such good friends with in day care! I thought she had moved away or something. And that's not all--I found out later from my mom that the girl and I are related! In fact, her father and my uncle used to be inseparable back when they were growing up. Now, almost eight years later, we're still friends and she's the only one out of my high school group that still calls me.

New Years Eve 2001
 

Pat and I are at a big party thrown by a swanky hotel for NYE. We got their early, parked at some great seats, then all of a sudden, he zeros in on someone across the room, like a pointer who got wind of a duck.
"The looks just like a guy from KA at Purdue....." (One of his pledge brothers had transferred from Purdue to Texas A&M after initiation.)
"Pat, the world is not that small. It can't be him. Your eyes are playing tricks on you."
"No, it looks *exactly* like him, it can't be anyone else."
"For the love of God, don't embarass me, OK? It probably isn't him."
"No, I won't, but if I see him go to the bar or something, I'll get up and 'run into him accidentally' or something."

I am now preparing to hide under the table as he bothers some stranger.

But it really WAS his "long lost" pledge brother and they've been inseparable ever since!

Adrienne PNAM-2003
:D

another one...
 

I was out shopping with my mother several years ago, and she and I were just looking around. Out of nowhere, this blonde girl who was working at the store walked up to me.

"Is your name ____?"

yes.

"Did you go to _____ school?"

yes.

"Well, my name is ____."

She turned out to be a girl whose mother taught first grade at my school for a while. She transferred out in 2nd or 3rd grade, and I hadn't seen her since. I couldn't believe that she remembered me, let alone recognized me, after 10 years or more. I like to think I'm pretty good with names and faces most of the time, but I never would have placed her.

The sigma chi i was dating RIGHT before I met Garrett (te guy i have been dating recently until we broke up two days ago and I am still sad about) was at a bar we were at last weekend. Turns out Garrett's twin brother beat the crap out of him one night in college at a bar.
They laughed that I had dated him- actually so did I.

A guy at my work came in the other day, his last name was the same of my sorority sisters- because it was her dad! He works here too!

I am convinced that Texas is the worlds largest small state. 20 million people, and they all know each other.

My godparents daughter was a senior in HS when I was a freshman. Grew up across the street from her. Anyway, she works for the AG's office in Austin as an attrourney. She is still good friends with my sister. Anyway, she was at a holiday party in December and was talking withthis guest at the party. They were discussing where they were from, and it came up that they were both from the panhandle area of texas. After further discussion, turns out that the other girl Stephanie, was my next door neighbors granddaughter, and we had all played toghther as kids. Susanna and stephanie hadnt seen each other in probably 25 years.


Pretty wild.


Another story;
I only knew of one other person from my high school who now lived in San Antonio. He lived at the apartments called Tala Vera. I didnt know anyone who lived over there, so I was never there. Well a few buddies moved in there and we had finished helping them move in and was mentioning to them a fella I knew in HS lived there. We go on-line to check where he lived in the complex and found out that he lived in unit #1816. Apparently he had just moved out, because my buddies had just moved into unit #1816.

Talk about Weird
 

Back in October, I went to this job fair that was held like in the lobby of this hotel. Anyway, I circle around looking at the different employers there. So I get to the Progressive Insurance booth and the recruiter there is all smiling and waving at me. Turns out the the recruiter is a girl I went to college with! I didn't get a job Progressive, but it was werid that she remembered me after all that time

This didn't happen to me, but to my husband...

Back in the mid 90s my husband worked for a company that required that he travel internationally. He was in Geneva Switerland waiting for a train to Lausaunne (sp?). Since he only speaks English he was just reading as he was waiting. After a few minutes a man (Black American as well) came up and started a conversation with him. Evidently 6 ft 2 Black men are a bit unusual in Geneva! ;) Anyway, they do the regular, where are you from, where are you going, etc. When the man mentioned where he was from, the conversation went like this:

husband said "You're from _____That close to my wife's hometown.

Man: Where's she from?

Husband: She's from ___________

Man: Really? I went to college there!

Husband: Really? Her parents still live there and went to the same college. Their names are _______

Man: Get outta here!

Turns out the guy knew my dad really well!!

telemarkters making my world smaller...
 

So, I get this call last night from a new store in the next town. For whatever reason, I didn't excuse myself from the call. It turned out to be a new business in the area, and they sent a sales rep to my house. Well, the guy they sent last night got lost. So, they sent another person out tonight. He did his sales pitch and was about to leave when he gave me a packet of information and wrote his name at the bottom of one of the pages. It just so happens that his last name is a family name of mine, so I asked him if I could ask him something totally off topic. He told me to have at it, so...

Me: 'you wouldn't happen to have any family in Kentucky, would you?'

Sales rep: :eek: (his girlfriend or someone of the sort was with him, and she told me his whole family was from Kentucky.)

Of course, when I saw the look on his face, I tried to explain my question a little.

Him: NO...

Me: Have you ever heard of this little town?

Him: We're related.

I was at a party... I think we were just hanging out. Anyhow the girl I was dating from around 2 or so months back shows up with a friend of mine from highschool... Hadn't seen the dude in a long time and couldn't figure out how they had gotten together...

This is where it got interesting:

Turns out they were seeing eachother while I was seeing her...

And even more interesting:

So around a year later, she sees me driving through the parking lot at school.. She calls me up to see what I'm doing. Turns out she's certifiable... Manic depressive, bipolar, etc.. Had gone through some real issues (4 attempted suicides) and was now heavily medicated. Was interested in what I was doing later that week...:rolleyes: :D :eek:

My parents went to Nebraska back in the mid 70's and they knew exactly one guy in Beta Theta Pi...fast forward 30 years later and I end up befriending this girl on my then girlfriend's dorm floor. Start talking to her and find out her dad is a Beta, which I thought was cool (until like every 5th girl tells me that her dad was a Beta).
Thanksgiving rolls around and I'm talking to my parents about this girl and somehow it clicks that her dad was that one Beta they knew. When I think about it I'm amazed b/c she just as easily could have been someone that I met at a party and never got far enough along to even remember her last name and yet we some how managed to meet and become decent friends.

Another one happened in late spring of my senior year of HS, back in KC. Nebraska was playing in the College World Series and I was working at Panera Bread. Guy comes in wearing a Nebraska ballcap, and I said something like "You should be at home watching the game, that's what I'd be doing." We get to talking about Nebraska and he asks why I'm a fan, and I explain that both my parents are from there, what HS they went to and such. Turns out that he graduated the same year as my dad from that HS, and more than that, they had gone to the same catholic elementary and middle schools, and been fairly good friends. That was pretty weird.