Touched by mediocrity or maybe unrecognized genius. Tell us about your run-ins with non-celebrities

[struggle4progress]

Me, I was picking up at the local drive through, and the cashier said "They swivel on the way down" as she was handing me my burger tray

Or something like that: actually I'm not sure that's exactly what she said, but it sounded like that

Also I'm not sure she was talking to me, but she was looking at me when she said it, and I couldn't figure out who else she could have been talking to

So I thanked her and drove away

I have lots of stories like this, that I don't really know the meaning of, and so life is always full of mystery for me

:)

[nolabear]

1. *snort!* I almost ran over a guy in the crosswalk today.

I was making a right on red and I swear he came out of nowhere. In fact, I don't think he ever saw me either. So really, it was like a tree falling in the forest and no one being there. Or something.

[freshwest]

3. This has been happening in my life, too. I'm edgy about people stepping into the street.

They have the right of way, and they are naturally faster and more agile than cars, and increasingly bold and unpredictable. They don't really seem to care about the traffic lights and the fact that a driver has to not make sudden stops or risk being hit from behind.

I have to drive very slow to watch very closely at all four corners when I make a turn, not just for cars but pedestrians, pedestrians with dogs off leash, bicyclists using the sidewalks and kids running ahead of their folks.

One day I nearly hit a cyclist who was coming up faster than me to my rear on the sidewalk and decided to take that green for his own, half way down the block, after I'd already gotten halfway into the crosswalk for my turn. If I'd hit him as he zoomed past, it would have been my fault. So I'm looking ahead, to the side and behind.

It's a lot more crowded here, makes driving a white-knuckled adventure with a lot of deep breathing. Not a pleasure.

[struggle4progress]

16. I am just driving to the grocery. I am driving southbound in the right lane; a pickup am driving

southbound in the left lane. Residential neighbor. Pickup starts blinking left. Aha! (I says to meself) I reckon he's planning to turn left! I think that way sometimes. But, no! The pickup, blinking left, pulls into the right lane in front of me, and then (still blinking left) turns right onto a side street

If I still had ESP, I would have heard the driver say I used my fuggin blinker so what the fug do you want? but I didn't hear that because I had to give up ESP years ago because it was too distracting

[ashling]

18. I am telepathetic

so I already knew that, but I don't know what it means. And anyway, I am so confused

:tv::nopity:

[struggle4progress]

19. Yeah, I'm something like that: sociopathetic, psychopathetic, whatever it is

[applegrove]

21. There is no confusion like the bewilderment phase of being stalked by a psychopath. I worked with a

freak who was stalking me and had been stalking me for 8 years before. I had no idea. And things started not to add up at work. And in my private life. And weird things were happening to my belongings and to my friends and coworkers. And I had horrid anxiety and was bursting into tears. And then, because I am good at figuring things out, I realized a bit that I was being stalked inside and outside of work by him. So I wasn't confused anymore... I went into shock instead. And I described figuring it out as being psychic but really I was way behind. Took me much more than a decade to put it all together. Would it be fair to call me confused when in fact it was done to me. No, it would not be fair.

[bluesbassman]

2. Remember it well. 1987, little dive on the penninsula. Guy asked us to play Freebird.

We would've done it too, but he was so drunk that by the time we figured out what key we wanted to play it in, the drunk dude was passed out by one of the subs.

I kept the twenty though just on general principle.

[applegrove]

4. Ouch!

[struggle4progress]

6. That particular cashier sometimes experiments with the job parameters:

a few months ago, I put out my hand for my change, at which point she turned her back to me and dropped my money into my hand without looking back

:shrug:

[Kali]

5. !

:rofl: :applause: :thumbsup:

so I was in the feed store and Ed asked if we had any rain yet. I just said don't even ask, the manzanitas are dying. He told me how much various people around the valley have had. You get that kink of scoop when you run a feed store.

[Kaleva]

7. A guy held his knife to my throat, took my wallet. I asked for taxi fare & he gave it to me.

I was drunk and stationed in Philly at the time. Other then robbing me at knife point, he was a pretty cool dude to give me some of my money back so I wouldn't have to stagger blocks to the ship.

[struggle4progress]

9. It's so wrong to judge people harshly just because they're muggers

[Kaleva]

12. So true! There's good in everyone.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Was on an airplane the other day

and the captain helped a wheelchair-bound passenger board and then put another passenger's heavy bag in the overhead bin for her. I thought that was nice.

[struggle4progress]

10. That's cool: I guess not all airline pilots are useless drunks

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. They most certainly are not.

[Kaleva]

13. Travel by air would be more exciting if they were.

[struggle4progress]

14. That's what I meant but you said it better than I did

[LynneSin]

15. My neighbor stopped by to ask when the lawn service was coming by

I told her I had to run - I had water running.

[Orrex]

17. I once had my shoes shined by a man working in the basement of the Steel Tower in PIttsburgh

The man was an artist. He'd obviously been at his trade for many years, and he worked with a curious grace that was somehow mesmerizing to watch, right down to the side-to-side swish of the brush and the popping of the polishing rag.

It was the first time I'd had my shoes professionally shined, and not the last, but I've never seen someone perform the job with such easy and casual expertise.

I was hesitant to say anything to him about it because in context I felt as though I would come across as some sort of privileged, office-working asshole. I did say something like "Wow, you did a really great job," and I gave him a tip that was more than the cost of the shine.

Our society under-appreciates and under-values honest trades, but there's something impressive about witnessing someone who's very good at the job he does.

[SoDesuKa]

20. I Met Robert Kennedy

Not the Robert Kennedy. Another one.

[LeftishBrit]

22. I Met Al Capone.

Not *the* Al Capone. Another one.

I also met not-*the*-Gordon Brown.

[struggle4progress]

23. I'm old enough to remember when Jesse James was treasurer of Texas

Not that Jesse James. The other one.

[nolabear]

31. You mean the OTHER other one?

Or just the other one?

[struggle4progress]

33. Sorry. I always get all the other ones confused.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

34. You forgot Warren G. Harding!!!

Warren G. Harding (not the president from Ohio) was also the Texas State Treasurer.

The story about Jesse James is true. For a while I think you couldn't get elected State Treasurer unless you had a famous name.

:rofl:

Texas-where the politicians think up new ways to be stupid every day. However we have stiff competition from the rest of the Third World Third Coast, Brownsville to Key West, as I call it, and Oklahoma.

[struggle4progress]

35. I'd completely forgotten that Warren succeeded Jesse. I'd like to believe that it's because

I had more important things on my mind back in those days when I lived there, but I think this is what was on my mind then:

There must be some kinda way of here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZTPsrcfQSE

[WolverineDG]

24. I was once handed $20 by a couple who insisted I had been their waitress the day before

I told them that couldn't be possible, as I was (a) not from New Orleans & was a tourist just like them and most importantly (b) only 14 at the time. But no, they insisted I take the $20 & kept walking down Bourbon Street. (it was mid-afternoon & I was there with my mother)

To this day, people still come up & ask me for directions in towns I'm visiting. And if I'm in a store, I always get asked where something is or how much it is, which is why I never wear red when going to Target. (not that that's ever stopped anyone from assuming I work there)

dg

[Kali]

28. oh I get that in stores a lot too

not sure how to take it

do you help them if you know where stuff is? I do:rofl:

[WolverineDG]

30. Yeah, because it's the nice thing to do

but still, I have to suppress the urge to grab them by the shoulders & yell "AM I WEARING A RED SHIRT? WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I WORK HERE????" :banghead: :rofl:

dg

[marzipanni]

39. I wonder if any large group of teenagers

has dressed in red shirts and khakis to do a 'flash mob' to confuse a Target store.

I googled my idea and apparently I think like this Mormon missionary- hee-hee...

copied and pasted from Facebook page"Flashmob Ideas":

Elder Jared
I figured this might help create new ideas for the flashmob. Got any?

I have a one:

This would end up being a local flashmob event but it would be hilarious if we flooded Target with 100 flashmob members wearing red shirts and khaki pants./div]

[Lydia Leftcoast]

25. When I lived on the West Coast, I used to have Spanish-speaking people ask me for directions or

to help them find things in stores. In Spanish.

I am of Scandinavian descent and look the part, so why people assumed that I spoke Spanish (I do know some half-remembered bits from high school, so I could usually help them a little, but I'm not a proficient speaker by any means), I don't know.

My department chair's wife was an attorney with a lot of Latino clients, and her hypothesis was that I looked like someone who wouldn't bite people's heads off for speaking something other than English.

[RedCloud]

26. I was driving baby Blue Cloud to the doctor. Had him all strapped in.

Then some guy swerved in front of us. I said, "What a dick-head!"

About a year later, Blue Cloud was finally speaking. Another guy jumps in front of us and Blue Cloud says, "Look daddy. That dick head is back!" :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush::blush:

[sarge43]

38. An attaboy and round of applause for Baby Blue Cloud.

He has potential.

[Amaril]

27. "They swivel on the way down"

I read this, and it echoed in my head like it was a quote from "something". I pondered it a bit (nada), googled (nada), and pondered some more. I've finally decided that it, itself, isn't the quote I'm thinking of, but that it merely reminds me of......

"They all float down here."

[Deep13]

29. An x-ray tech gave me directions on how to find the clinic lab.

It was a helpful if unremarkable event.

[Quantess]

32. I was 22 when I wrote a silly fan letter to Dan Clowes, comic book author

of Ghost World, Eightball(my favorite), Like A Velvet Glove Cast in Iron.
I sprayed perfume on it and I kissed the envelope with lipstick marks. I saw a photo of him in an article and I thought he was surprisingly cute. No, of course I got no reply.

[MrScorpio]

36. The cable guy came over today

He fixed my problem.

All is good.

[sarge43]

37. I discussed the pros and cons of a military career with a medic

while she was performing a pre-op bush whacking. Never found out if she re-upped.