It really is a small world

[mathnerd]

Twice in two days I've interacted with random people who turned out to have a much closer connection than you'd think two strangers would have. It was kinda creepy, in a way.

Story the first: Yesterday my eldest offspring had to have an MRI done. While I was waiting, I was chatting with a random woman who was also waiting for her kid to finish having his MRI done. Somehow, the topic of conversation got to my boyfriend, and I mentioned what he used to do for a living. She asked where he used to work. I told her. Then she got this really weird look on her face and asked what his name is. I told her. Turns out she worked in the same lab he did for years before most of the lab staff got laid off. It was pretty cool, and we chatted and caught her up on his life and she told me about her life to tell him when I got home. Pretty awesome.

Story the second: My eldest offspring is into MMA. Because of his bone disease, he can't really fight, but he does what he can. His coach adores him and my kid sees him as a father figure. Coach has been good to my son. My son works hard around the gym, and coach knows our situation, and does what he can to give my kid some things in life that I just can't provide for him. To that end, he takes him to various fights around southern California and Nevada when he can. My kid gets to hang around the fights and watch some pretty high end events that I'd never in a million years be able to afford. So yesterday they headed up to a King of the Cage match that coach had a fighter in. The match was today. This morning, I get a panicked call from my kid. Coach got sick and was in the hospital. They were stranded 120 miles away from home, and was it possible for me to come get them after the fight. Of course I'm not going to leave my kid stranded so I said I'd figure it out. An hour later, he calls back. The fighter forgot his mouth guard. Could I meet the fighter's girlfriend and get the mouthguard. Of course I can. This means I had to leave right then in order to make it before the fight started, but that's cool. The girlfriend wanted to come with me, and as I drive a van, this was cool too. So we had a two hour drive and spent the time chatting. She's a young kid, but as I used to teach, I'm pretty good with connecting with people of all ages. So we're chatting about this and that, and it turns out that her aunt is the foster mom of the girl child I tried to get custody of a few months back (that CPS said no to because she's my middle son's girlfriend.) So of course I have to tell the foster mom, who thought that was just too funny.

Really, sometimes I'm amazed at just how small this world can be.

[firecat88]

Oh wow. That is crazy. O.o I have a similar story, but it's more my mom's story than mine.

Back when I was still in a chorus, we had a weekend retreat in Moab. Now, to give you some idea, this is back when I was still in Grand Junction. Moab is in Utah and, depending on weather and traffic conditions, is almost a 2 hour drive away from GJ.

When we got to the hotel where everyone was staying, the lady at the front desk knew and recognized my mom. As it turns out, her husband had been one of my mom's patients at the surgery center only like a month before this trip. So, as we were checking in, they spent a few minutes catching up and talking about how he'd been since the surgery.

And that wasn't even the first time it happened. When we lived in GJ, my mom bumped into former patients and their families seriously 7 out of every 10 times we went anywhere.

[EricKei]

I have very, very rarely had such connections manifest themselves -- tho I did end up in an RPG group in the late 90's, some of whom knew a reeeealllly old friend of mine, who came by one day when we were at one of the crew members' home. I ended up working at GameStore with said old friend as my manager five years later. After Katrina, the resulting coalescence of stores (due to half of them closing/no longer existing) added a friend I knew from college into the mix.

My Dad, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. Back in the 60s and 70s, he had been a local entrepreneur -- he managed a travel agency or three and worked with developers to bring new businesses and buildings into the city. As a result, he knew a lot of interesting people. Whenever he went out to eat, he had a good 50/50 shot at running to someone he knew and/or had done business with in the past. A lady friend of his remarked that he would always sit facing the door when in restaurants, so that he could "work the room" and see if he spotted anyone he knew.

[mathnerd]

Well, when I still lived in my home state, I ran into former students all the time, but they weren't strangers. And I know Jester can't walk 10 feet in Key West without bumping into somebody who recognizes him (though he doesn't recognize them), but that still a little different.

And I forgot about one more. Saturday night I was in the ER with yet another allergic reaction. The dude in the bed two beds down from me just happened to be our next door neighbor. That was kind of freaky, but again, not a stranger situation.

[Deserted]

Last week I drove a woman that turned out to be married to a (very) distant cousin of mine. I've been family tree-ing quite a bit lately, and her name sounded awfully familiar. As we talked, I became convinced of the connection when she mentioned that her husband came from Hillbilly Heaven, where most of my distant family resides. (And yes, my family out there is a bunch of hillbillies, corncob pipes and everything.)

After I dropped her off, I checked the online family tree, and sonuvabitch, there she was.

[RayvenQ]

As soon as I got with my now Finaceé, I kept talking to people who had been where she lived and vice versa she kept running into people who had originally come from where I live, she was particularly happy one day when she came up here that she saw someone wearing a tshirt for a local (for her band) Did I mention she lives 260 miles away and on an island to boot?

Another one was when I got my best friend in college, by a coincidental set of circumstances, she and I started sitting near each other on the bus to/from college, and ended up becoming damn good friends, until one day I realised she seemed really familiar, we talked and it turned out she was the ex girlfriend of one of my friends in high school, and we'd met once before.

But, my biggest small world was when I was halfway through college. In one of my classes I made friends with a girl, usually ended up sitting at the same table with her. Anyway, one time I went to a family wedding and lo and behold if i didn't see a familiar person carrying a familiar homer simpson bag, asked her what she was doing there, she was there for the same reason I was, there for a cousins wedding.

[MoonCat]

Closest thing I got is a few years ago I was at the union Christmas party and a CW walked in with her boyfriend....who turned out to be one of the vets I take my cats to at the cat clinic.

But that doesn't involve long distances. Some of these stories are pretty cool

[Aragarthiel]

A cousin on my dad's side once rented from my great-uncle's dad on my mom's side. I lived with great-uncle for a while and went to visit his dad one day, saw my cousin walking around the trailer park they owned, and it turned out he lived there!

A bit less coincidental is that I moved around a lot as a kid and went to school at several elementary schools in the same district. Some of my friends from each school ended up friends with each other when they all coalesced at the same high school, and even a few from different high schools! And I can't count how many times I moved to another school in the district to find that a friend of mine from yet another school moved there soon afterwards.

My best friend from 5th grade ended up in a group home that my mom was working in for a while. She'd already been like another daughter to my mom so it was a good thing that happened.

The strangest thing of all, really, is that one of my friends from here in Georgia and another from Arizona met online on a game and became friends.

[Teefies2]

When I was living overseas, I attended the local American-run school. That only went up to the 9th grade, however, so for 10th grade, I went to a boarding school in Switzerland. For spring break one year, we went to Russia. I was standing in Red Square in Moscow, turned around, and ran into a guy who had been in my class at the American school I had attended. Talk about a small world? What are the chances of that??

[jnd4rusty]

I live in an apartment complex and a lady and her son moved in three doors down. My mom used to visit me for a few weeks at a time and she became friends with Faye. One day they were chatting and my mom mentioned her last name and Faye instantly recognized the last name because her cousin had the same last name. After looking at family trees we discovered that my dad's first cousin married Faye's first cousin! I am engaged to Faye's son!! Yep we met three doors down and we have mutual cousins!

[pudddykat]

My dad saw a work colleague from a previous job on an airplane. They chatted about their daughters starting college in the fall. Of course they tell their daughters the story. I lived in the all girl eight floor dorm building on campus. I met this girl and we were fast becoming friends. We went to each others sister private high school. We were chatting about our families and suddenly... "You're THAT Pudddykat!" "You're THAT Jenny!" We lived in the same dorm same floor.

Also reconnected with a friend from high school who had left in her second year I think. Who knew we'd end up at the same college.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

There is a particular fast food joint that's 2-5+ hours from anywhere I have ever lived. I hit it about 4 times a year, and every time I run into people I have know from various places. Probably all for the same reason though, it's at the cross roads of two roads that both come from larger centers, and are the only two major roads that head north from that point.

Three years ago I got on a plane in Toronto, and landed completely unexpectedly in Michigan. While waiting there for a plane that would take me to Jamaica I met a man from Dawson who used to live in the town I had moved to a couple weeks earlier, population 600. He was waiting for a flight to Cuba. We ended up both having to take a plane to Florida, to get on planes that would take us where we were going, and sitting beside each other. He was showing me pictures and his daughter was the realtor who had showed me the place I ended up moving. Getting our luggage in Florida he ran into someone else from Dawson, who was moving to my town in another couple weeks. I still hang out with that guy from time to time.

(I think I told that badly)