Strange coincidences? Share yours!

[DeltaSierra]

So not to hijack Lizard Queen's topic about needing a new keyboard due to a coffee fiasco and having the IT guy at that very moment come in with a cartful of keyboards, I was wondering....

Do you have any strange coincidences that have happened recently that you would like to share?

Mine: Just this weekend, hubby and I were discussing some things we need to get for the apartment. He has a honking big Vitamix blender that I love, but if I just want to make a small protein shake for breakfast or whatnot its too big, so he told me that we were going to go look and see if we could find a Magic Bullet or Ninja Blender on sale. He said he also wanted to get a few things from Walmart - specifically a new pair of gloves for work (he works night-time security and is often outside in the cold,) a candle-lighter, (the kind with a bendable tip to get into a deep candle,) and a new bit set for his drill as he can't find his old set. He also wanted to pick up a rubbermaid tote to keep our winter boots and stuff in.

Monday, as we parked at Walmart, we notice a lady struggling to put a huge box in the trunk of her car. Hubby and I quickly went over and offered to help her, and in no time had it loaded. In order to get the box to fit, she had pulled out a rubbermaid tote that was full of stuff and it wouldn't fit back in the trunk and there was no space in the back seat as she had 2 kids with carseats there. She said it was stuff she was going to drop off at the Goodwill drop off box across the street, and asked us if we would mind doing that for her? We said no problem, and just before she left she said "Oh by the way - please look through it - if there's anything you can use, feel free to take it before dropping it off!"

So we figure if nothing else, we'll drop off what's inside the tote and at least we have a free tote!

Until we opened it up.

contents:

- Magic Bullet blender with extra seals, blade, blending cup and 4 handled cups with colored caps

- Brand new pair of ski gloves

- Ryobi bit set

- Bendable candle lighter

- Assorted coffee mugs

- Metal 3-tray stand for candies

- Plastic console tray for car

We looked at each other with absolute disbelief!!! We dropped off the coffee mubs, candy tray and console, but kept the rest. The Magic Bullet is brand new and it works beautifully!!! Hubby used the gloves last night and he said they are fantastic.

I guess that was karma in action

[Lachrymose]

This past June, I had a shed delivered to my house.

I work only five minutes from home, and had asked for a call when the delivery truck got to my house.

I said to a coworker it'd be funny if I missed the call, picked it up on my voicemail, then hurried home only to have him pull away with me yelling "Shaaane! Come baaack!."

A few minutes later I got the call.

"Hi, this is Shane from so and so delivery..."

[Lyse]

I few days ago I stopped off at the grocery store for coffee creamer and a meat entree. I passed a grated Parmesan display, stopped to look and think "nothing I'm making needs this" and then on the way out grabbed one anyway.

Two days later my roommate made spaghetti. The look on her face when I grabbed the new canister of cheese out of the cabinet was great!

[sms001]

Wow DeltaSierra! Five for five ain't bad at ALL!

No karma here, but odd none-the-less.

Was bicycling home a few weeks ago along a busy thoroughfare, glancing into cars going in each direction as I rode. Across my lanes, headed in the opposite direction, I see a gentleman scratching his right ear with his left hand. In the car behind him in the other lane, the same. Big space, then a woman... scratching her right ear with her left hand. At this point I'm thinking THAT'S REALLY ODD, did I just see that? And then the final car (van actually) of the (set? group? cluster?) with a guy scratching his right ear with his left hand!

I half expected to get up the road and see some sort of electric traffic warning sign facing the southbound drivers exhorting them to perform this little ritual, but no dice. Just one of those freaky coincidences life throws in front of us from time to time.

And 'grats on your nice haul!

[Gumby30]

There's an odd coincidence that keeps popping up in my Dad's family. His mother lived at a certain house door number, all her children were born there and her parents passed away there. She moved out of the house when the last of the kids moved out, but it had for a long time been a focus of the family life and the extended family.

This number continues to occur in various forms (order numbers, credit cards etc) but by far the spookiest coincidence was when my Grandma passed away years ago and we secured her a plot in the local cemetary. The plot number was EXACTLY the same 3 digit number as the house door number. Creepy.

[Andara Bledin]

Gumby, that sounds like a number my cousin picked up on years and years ago. He referred to it as "the entity number" because he's that kind of guy.

I don't know how he and his friend stumbled upon it (I think it was while they were in the Air Force), but shortly thereafter, that number came up significantly. His mother moved and that was her new PO Box number (he doesn't care for her), he moved and his new phone number contained that sequence, we moved and our phone number contained that sequence. He needed a storage unit, and it was that number. While the phone numbers weren't just that 3-digit sequence, the PO Box and storage unit were.

Oh, and just for kicks, his sister managed to run across some toilet paper that had that number on the banding and bought him a case of it.

^-.-^

[Kittish]

This one may be more of a just weird than any sort of coincidence, but here it is anyway. I apparently have a twin running around.

Several years back I was a truck driver. One fine afternoon I'm in a truck stop about to enjoy a meal when this other driver comes up, sits himself down across the table from me and proceeds to start chatting as if we know each other. It took me close to 5 minutes to convince the guy that, no, I have no clue who he is. Turns out a few days back he'd spent some time talking with another lady driver who apparently looked enough like me that he couldn't tell the difference even up close. Weirdness. It gets weirder. I kept hearing about my twin off and on over the years. She drove for the same company I did at one point, though not at the same time I did. She had the same number of cats I had. Her name was the same as mine. A friend of mine passed my twin going into a grocery store one day not too long ago and asked me later why I hadn't spoken to her in the store.

It actually got to the point where I asked my father if I'd been part of a set of twins, with one of us adopted out at birth or something. He assures me that I was not born as part of a set of twins or triplets and (to quote him) he ought to know, he was there.

[Kara]

This is maybe less coincidence and more... irony. With a bit of fate thrown in the mix.

My girlfriend of 5 months broke up with me right before Christmas, I do not know why (posted about this, as most of you know). I didn't even really cry, it was so random. And really, I hadn't seen her since October and that was only for about 15 minutes because I was in the area and dropped by. I hadn't really had anything resembling a date since August.

So I figured I should move on. Got back in the dating game, got on the dating sites I had accounts for. But I just wasn't really feeling it. I was tired of getting burned by love. I even thought about just looking for someone to have some no-strings-attached fun with and not even worry about anything serious. I was just done with relationships for now.

I recently joined a local group and a few people said hi to me, as they do with most new members. This girl sent me a PM just saying hi, and I looked at her profile on the site. She's a transwoman in the area who is my age and has 2 kids. So that was cool, most of the other transwomen I know around here are 15-20 years older than me. She pretty much said hi to me for that reason. So we started talking, sharing experiences and comparing notes about how we came to be who we are today.

So I was at work a days later and it occurred to me that I could not stop thinking about her. And I realized I was totally into her. She had a 3-year long relationship end 2 months ago because she kept catching her ex in bed with other people, so she wasn't in any hurry for a relationship either. So I was afraid to say anything because I didn't want to lose her as a friend by wanting more than that.

The next day, which happened to be New Year's Day, we were chatting and she mentioned that maybe in a couple weeks we could grab a coffee or something before the group's meeting on the 12th. I said I am in town every Saturday to see my kids, and that would be great as I had planned on some shopping to pass the time that day. She said she wasn't big on shopping but if I wanted to, she could show me some neat specialty shops. So I told her I had to be honest, I didn't really care what we did. I just wanted to hang out with her and just... be near her.

She seemed relieved and we confessed we liked each other. It had occurred to both of us that we were not only a lot alike, but we were highly compatible. We decided to give us a try, and we went out to dinner last Friday. It was amazing. She already understands me on a level none of my exes ever could, there are so many things neither of us have to say because we already know. And seriously, she is so much like me it's a little scary. We like the same shows, the same movies, same hobbies... when I thought she couldn't possibly get any more perfect, she mentioned Doctor Who at dinner (and yes, we both love Tennant). We sat and talked for 3 hours (I spent more time with her on our first date than I spent total with my ex-gf in 5 months).

We decided to go dutch on dinner, so when our tickets came, I pulled out my pocketbook. She already had hers out and I stopped and looked at it.. then mine.... then hers... then mine... different color but EXACT same pattern. I started to giggle, and she finally saw what I had been looking at and goes, "You have to be kidding!" Same one, aside from the color.

We definitely feel a connection to each other that neither of us has felt with our exes. We decided we definitely need to be a couple and made a second date for tomorrow night. But she couldn't wait that long to see me again, so we wound up going out for coffee today and just enjoyed each other's company for another 3 hours. And we're still going out tomorrow.

It has NOT been lost on us how funny this is. We had both stopped looking for a relationship. She was only interested in me as a friend, neither of us had any intentions aside from "just friends" 2 weeks ago. And now, here we are.

All because she just happened to say "Hi."

[fireheart]

I have 2 very funny coincidences:

Coincidence the first:

So as many of you know, I'm a student teacher. One big rule of our field placements has been that the university organises them for us. We cannot organise them ourselves.
I had finished one of my placements quite late and because we were unsure if I would pass that placement, they'd been holding off on finding me a school for my second placement. On top of that, we had the extra difficulty of finding me a special needs placement (they were looking at K-2 classes for me because I needed to do it, but also because they are aware of my mental health status and are accommodating that. We were originally looking at an inclusive classroom, but couldn't find one.)

As it turns out, 2 days before the end of the school year, I get an email from the placement co-ordinator saying that I was going to <New School>, my supervising teacher was <Person> and my contact was <Principal>. So I ring and make the calls.

I went in the next day to drop off my report to my academic co-ordinator (very awesome lady) and she says to me "as it turns out, your supervising teacher rang us the other day and asked if we had any students left."

So not only do I get allocated a spot in time, I get allocated a spot with the mentor teacher that actually WANTS a student! (Some mentor teachers I know are not awfully fond of having student teachers. My first mentor teacher wasn't.) Even better, it turns out that she's one of THE best special education teachers in the state.

Coincidence #2:

Most of the "kids" (we're all grown up now) on my dad's side of the family are female. One of the males died when he was 18 and the other 2 are somewhat distant. Well, as it turns out, my cousin fell pregnant and had a boy (he's 3). My distant cousin #1 had a boy (also 3) and another boy (almost 18 months). Now distant cousin #2 is having a boy (about 5 months pregnant).

I'm finding it funny that where the family used to be all women, now it's growing into men

[protege]

Not too many coincidences...

Well, other than with the project car a few years back. It was off the road with some ignition problems, and I'd been looking for parts. As I was turning into Advance Auto on 51...anyone want to guess what was pulling out? Yep, a doppelganger. Same color, same year, etc. I couldn't help but go since as far as I knew, I owned the only one that color in the area! I made a quick U-turn, and attempted to chase him down Route 51, but he ended up losing me by the big hill. I saw the car again that summer, and it was no wonder why he lost me--that thing had a supercharger installed What's really odd though, is that I've never seen that car when driving my version of it. It's always seen when I'm in the Corolla.

[telecom_goddess]

You know Kara's story got me thinking. This is all taking place on Facebook but still. I'm friends with and a fan of tons of vampire oriented people and things. And quite a bit of just general darker side of life stuff. Along the way I started subscribing to this one person with the coolest name ever (not a real name either). One day she posted a photo of a certain movie that people of a certain lifestyle tend to know and like, which means it's not mainstream. I commented it was one of my favorite movies and she was like "whoo hoo someone who knows it" . We became friends and the more we talked the more we discovered we liked the same things, the same type of people, the same obscure movies (or mainstream movies that are older classics now). It's like we were separated at birth or something. The connection is just unreal. Too bad she lives across the country from me

[Jester]

Oh, where to begin? Odd coincidences happen to me so often, I just chuckle about it.

Concert #1

So when I was traveling the country, I found myself in San Francisco when Sheryl Crow was playing Lilith Fair. I love Sheryl Crow. So I decided to attend. Without a ticket, I went and parked in the pay lot, figuring I'd scalp a ticket or maybe just buy one from the box office. As I was at the box office considering my options, a guy walked up to me and asked, "Are you looking for a ticket?" Why yes, yes I was. "Well, I have an extra one, since my girlfriend works for a radio station, but you have to promise not to sell it, that you will actually use it." I assured him I was there for the music, not profit. And he GAVE me the ticket, refusing any payment, since he had not paid for it.

20th row, thank you very much.

Concert #2

Same time of my life, touring around the country. In Boston when I discover that Stevie Nicks is playing Great Woods. Once again, I go without a ticket. I pay for parking, and pull into my spot, next to another truck where the people are outside the truck, talking. I strike up a conversation with them, and it turns out they have an extra ticket....which they simply give to me, no charge.

I ended up hanging out with these four hot babes who "adopted" me and were literally pouring rum down my throat throughout the concert.

Sporting Event

September, 2011, I was at the ASU-USC game where we beat USC for the first time in 11 tries in 13 years. The place was packed; 72,000 fans at Sun Devil Stadium. After the victory, I was browsing the swag area, since you can never have too much paraphernalia, right? And I noticed a young woman wearing this shirt, which I had seen the last couple of years on tv, worn by ASU fans, which was awesome. It was a yellow t-shirt with the word HATE on it, with the A replaced by the University of Arizona logo. (You can see it here, though most of them, including mine, have sleeves; this guy has removed his.) I had seriously wanted this shirt since the first time I saw it on tv, and had not seen it any of the stores around Phoenix. So I asked her where she got it from. She laughed and said, "Actually, I make them." Yep...in a stadium of over 70,000 people, I ran into the ONE girl that makes these things!

Yes, I now own one.

Job

After Hurricane Wilma, when initially (and erroneously) I thought I had lost everything, I was ready to just grab whatever little was left and buy a plane ticket back to Phoenix. So I made some calls to some restaurants in a chain I used to work at for many years, just feeling out the situation, seeing if they might have a position for me. The GM at one such location said, "Wait, what was your name again?" I told him. "Yeah, I remember you. You trained me as a server years ago. As far as I'm concerned, you have a job whenever you get here."

Facebook

When I first signed up for facebook, and had 0 friends, I did a few searches for people I knew, and just as a joke, I did a search for my mom's name, even though at the time she didn't even have a computer, let alone facebook. The combination of my mom's first and last name is somewhat rare, especially since her first name is spelled differently from most people with that name. But lo and behold, facebook came up with one person with that exact name, same spelling and all. So my very first "friend" on facebook was a random woman in the UK who just happened to have my mother's exact name!

Truck

In 1998 I bought a blue, two door, 1989 Chevy Blazer, which served me well, including an 18 month trip around the country. In 2005, this truck, while mechanically as sound as all get out, was showing her age in non-mechanical ways. So I decided to look into replacing it, and told the dealerships in Miami and Key West that I dealt with that I wanted something similar to it, but newer. (Similar meaning a mid-sized SUV built on a truck platform.) I got a few hits here and there, but nothing really panned out, for various valid reasons. Then one day in December 2005, I got a call from one of the Key West dealerships. The salesmen said, "You'll never guess what just came in. A blue, two door, 2000 Chevy Blazer." I high-tailed it down to the dealership, and sure enough, it was quite literally my truck, only newer.

Four days later she was mine.

Still is.

Across my lanes, headed in the opposite direction, I see a gentleman scratching his right ear with his left hand. In the car behind him in the other lane, the same. Big space, then a woman... scratching her right ear with her left hand. At this point I'm thinking THAT'S REALLY ODD, did I just see that? And then the final car (van actually) of the (set? group? cluster?) with a guy scratching his right ear with his left hand!

I don't think that this is really an odd coincidence so much as it is an operation of logistics.

Let me explain.

The majority of the population, approximately 90%, is right-handed. Most people, when they are operating a car or motor vehicle, if they are going to lift a hand off of the controls to do something, are going to lift their non-dominant hand, i.e., 90% will perform the non-driving operation with their left hand. Yes, plenty of people can do plenty of things with both hands, but I think the natural instinct, the reflex, when one is driving and need to keep one hand on the controls, is to keep the dominant hand on the controls and do the other thing, such as scratching a body part, with the non-dominant hand.

Of course, I have no statistical data to back me up (other than the percentage of righties in the population), but this just seems reasonable to me.

There's an odd coincidence that keeps popping up in my Dad's family.

This number continues to occur in various forms...

My friend Cat and I have often joked that we are "haunted" by the number 3, which happens to be the favorite number of both of us. For example, any time I get a personalized sports jersey, the number I get is 33.

Well, at this time in my life, 3 is definitely "haunting" me. My street address is 3333. My zip code is 33040. There are two 3s in my phone number (though admittedly, what most people notice about my phone number is that it ends in 666!).

And many years ago, this popped up in a very weird way. I had just finished a shift at my restaurant in Scottsdale, and was doing my paperwork with my manager, when I pointed out to him the oddity of my sales. $333.33. He found that amusing, and a bit more so when I mentioned that the number "haunted" me, but he didn't freak out until I pointed out to him the date.

March 3. 3/3. Or, if you're European, 3/3.

I apparently have a twin running around.

I had a "twin" in high school. I should explain that I went to three high schools in two states, and in my third and final high school, which I only attended for my senior year, I had a class with this guy "Schroeder." Apparently we looked a lot alike. WE didn't see it, but it became routine for people to say they thought they saw me, but it wasn't me, or they'd ask me if I had a twin brother (I don't have a brother at all, other than my step-brother, who looks nothing like me and at the time had already graduated high school), because apparently they were seeing Schroeder. I didn't really think we looked that much alike, but one day, when my girlfriend at the time came up to me and told me that she almost went up to kiss me between classes, until she realized it wasn't me because I was wearing different clothes, I knew that we had to apparently look more alike than either of us realized. And amusingly, though we only attended the same school for one year, for several years afterwards, I would occasionally get people coming up to me and start talking to me as if they knew me, until I made it clear to them that I was not Schroeder, I was Jester. I never saw Schroeder after high school, but I imagine he probably went through the same thing with people thinking he was me, if he stayed in the same area after graduation.

[dalesys]

I was at a Joan Baez concert and the girl sitting next to me commented on how good the violinist was (Tracy Grammer). I agreed and said that I'd been lucky enough to see some great violinists... Stephane Grappelli, Barbara Lamb, David LaFlamme...
"We're right proud of him."
She was David's sister.

[cindybubbles]

I entered in a CTV contest related to the Disney cartoon series "Bonkers" when I was 15. The grand prize was a Sega Genesis console (which was cool back then)! I sent my picture to the station and entered, expecting not to win.

Seems I wasn't the only one who watches CTV! A classmate of mine approached me in gym class and told me she saw my picture on TV and that I had won the Sega Genesis! I thought it was a joke, until I went home and called the station. I was floored when they verified me as the winner!

Three months later, I received the console as an early Christmas gift from the station! And to think, I almost missed my chance! Good thing my classmate noticed!

[ShinyGreenApple]

One of our techs at work transferred from another state to be with her boyfriend (now husband). One day a custoner cones to the drop off window, looks at her, and says "Well hey! What are you doing here?!"

"I moved here, what are you doing here?!"

"I moved here, too!"

What are the odds two people would both relocate to the same area? Especially given we're a Bumf*ck Egypt kind of town. Fortunately the customer is a really great old guy, so she doesn't mind that he "followed" her.

Also, her husband's brother is a guy who used to relentlessly ask me out and I kept turning him down. She says I made the right choice