A favorite on /r/askreddit, or at least it seems that way to me.
I only have one, and it’s not very entertaining.
I was on a bus going to work. A few stops before mine the bus gets cut off by another bus. The driver started yelling at the other driver then pulled over and got out of the bus to, I assume, escalate the conflict. We were near my stop anyway, so I got off before things could get hairy.
When Inwas in college, I saw that the local high school was putting on a performance of “The Secret of Monkey Island.” My best friend and I loved the games and were excited to see it, so we bought tickets.
I cannot express how bad it was. I’ve sat through some awful shit, but we just couldn’t take it. We walked out of a high school play because it was that bad.
Aww bummer! Lol it wasn’t this one, was it?
I lamented the recording quality, but I liked the idea…
Given the friends that came with me and their college year overlaps, it would have Fall 2003 or Spring 2004 in San Marcos, Texas.
I was smoking weed in an alleyway and some homeless dude (HD1) drew a knife on another homeless dude (hd2) and demanded that HD2 let HD1 buy HD2 some meth.
Sucked because it was behind my apartment so getting out was just going inside.
My friend and I were ghost hunting in an abandoned ghost town in OR. We were there pretty late in the night and literally heard so many whispers and she swear she saw a man following us so that’s was our queue to leave ASAP.
I’ll often say this to my kids, for example, when an establishment is closing.
Not very exciting, but loved hanging out on beaches on the west coast. This one went from a dock to a nice sandy beach that was bordered by a clay cliff. Well, a friend and I roll up and run quite a distance (ah, youthful energy!) exploring along the clay cliffs when the waves get weirdly big and loud. I guess the tide was actually coming in, not going out, and the cliffs weren’t climbable. Only way safely out was off the beach and back to the dock. The stretch we were on wasn’t even accesible at high tide, totally underwater. My friend was a big fella, but he tucked it in and ran with me like Ive never seen him run before. We were fine, but I remember feeling that realization strike.
Here’s one of mine.
‘04 some friends and I had planned a trip to Canada. We left right before Charley is hitting and really churning up the atmosphere. We made our way up the east coast seeing people we know along the way. Now it’s time to go through the Poconos. It was my vehicle but I wasn’t driving. So I’m watching the clouds and I’m like that looks bad. But we keep driving. I keep watching and finally I’m like no we have to get off now. So we exit and pull into a fast food place as it starts dumping hail on us. We run to the door and people were looking up. We were like what the heck. They said a tornado was spotted and headed this way.
We never saw the actual tornado but yeah that was fun.
Everyone’s hair started levitating. I freaked out and insisted we all leave the mountain top lookout immediately.
Massive bolt hit our prior location about a minute later.
Funny enough I came here to tell a similar story: We were surprised by upcoming bad weather with the possibility of a thunderstorm in the alps somewhat - we saw it coming, but underestimated the speed. (That was before Smartphones btw, so no weather app).
There is a Y junction on that trail. One leads to a serviced hut (which we hate, the people operating it were assholes) and towards the “wrong” valley. It’s shorter but yeah…the wrong direction.
The other way leads through a small section of a fixed rope/via ferrata section but straight towards our cars. We thought we would have enough time.
Around 5min after entering the route (which goes further up far beyond where we enter) we find out it takes longer than anticipated and it’s a proper alpine thunderstorm. Which is coming fast now. Well, if you haven’t seen a proper thunderstorm in the mountains - they are something else. Due to the higher pressure gradients, the interference with the terrain,etc. they are absolutely terrifiying. And deadly. If the lighting doesn’t get you the cold will (I literally saw temperature drops of 27 degrees in 20 minutes). And it that doesn’t get you the stones will.
Well. Slight panic set in,but we can handle. Not our first rodeo. Until our hair started to “levitate” a bit under the helmets, on the arms,etc. And then the steel wires started to “sing”. Kind of like a Theremin.
This when we knew we were fucked. Going back up? Means exposing us more. Down the wires? Likely going to electrocute us.
So we decided to get down directly. Stupidest decision I ever was part of in the mountains. because we didn’t really know the terrain below us,but it’s around 180m to the ground and then around 500m of mountain pasturr before the forest starts. Our logic was that the risk from the steel wire is higher than the risk of being forced to weather out in the rock wall. What would have happened if we didn’t find a good intermediate stand at one point I don’t know. (None has a 180m rope with one…so you need to find a lot of intermediate stands to secure yourself. This is normally done upwards,not downards. At least we had two ropes which makes things much easier. )
We send the girl that was with us down first (as she was the lightest and the best climber). And actually made it down surprisingly quick. But fuck…that could have gone wrong. When we were basically at the bottom a lighting hit a section just above were we would have been. Pelting a section a bit to the left of us with football sized stones.
There is a scene in rick and Morty where thex are crying in their car how close the last adventure was - it was basically us in the car, we all were shaking for a day.
Cool, I never realised there could be possible warnings of lightning strikes.
I’m pretty sure we got taught about that in school, though I forgot most of it, including what you’re supposed to do…
Once, when I was exploring my delinquent side, I went to a party that involved a lot of drinking. I didn’t partake but everyone else did.
It happened at a property that detained aggressive dogs. The owners of the property, for whatever reason, weren’t home. That’s why the party happened.
At one point a bunch of us - that is to say, many drunken people and I, the only sober person - went out on the roof and hung out. At one point I stumbled and almost fell from the roof into the pens of the aggressive dogs. The other attendants arrested my fall and thought it was hilarious that I - again, the only sober person - was the only one who (almost) fell, then speculated about what would have happened if I did.
I should have gone home, but didn’t.
This is bending the prompt somewhat, but I was once almost struck by lightning. I was walking home through a park, and based on how soon I had been hearing the thunder after each flash of lightning, the storm was basically right on top of me. I was feeling pretty nervous, and tried to take a route with minimal tall trees, but I was a teenager and didn’t know what else to do but to keep heading home
All of a sudden, I was filled with a sense of foreboding, and I felt an overwhelming instinct to get away from where I currently was. It was so strong that I dove off to the side, before I heard one of the loudest sounds I had ever heard. Based on where the lightning had seemed to hit, I was very lucky, as it looked like I would have been caught in it had I been standing where I was a moment before. I assume that the wrongness I was feeling before I jumped aside was subconsciously recognising the electric charge buildup in the air or something. I don’t know.
Either way, I’m glad I jumped. In an alternate timeline, I’d have dove and felt very silly after nothing at all happened. Or alternatively, I might have jumped aside and still been affected. Who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It always amazes me how good our instinct of just “something is terribly wrong”. I’ve avoided cars on the highway that would have hit me off not for “that person’s driving is suspect” and moved out of the way
our brains are wired for survival entirely based on observations we don’t even realize our brains are making.
a good study of this tested people with TBIs that severed their left and right hemispheres, thus making them independent lobes that could not directly communicate (or so scientists thought).
the study would show people two pictures to each eye independently. the subjects could only see one. when asked questions about the picture they would reference the one they couldn’t see.
for example: picture one was of a chicken coop, and picture two was of a snow shovel. when asked how they would clean the coop, the subject answered “snow shovel”. when asked why a “snow shovel” the subject became confused and sometimes frustrated because they couldn’t express why they didn’t just say “shovel”.
study found that even though you can’t comprehend everything around you, that doesn’t mean your brain is unaware of everything around you.
some people are more in-tune with this and seem to have a sixth sense, when in reality everyone has the ability to they just failed to train their access to it.
I read a book recently that discussed similar issues. Called Blindsight. Really good book if you like sci-fi.
Excellent read, highly recommend.
The sequel was a bit meh, but required reading I’d say
Wasn’t me but your story reminded me of my fiance on the bus a few years ago.
He was riding the bus with headphones on. All of a sudden he sees everyone on the bus start ducking under the seats except him. He’s like hm that’s weird what’s goin on. Like 5-10 seconds go by and he takes his headphones off and realizes someone was shooting a gun outside and a stray bullet went straight through the bus. Nobody was hurt.
Good headphones.
Was at a seedy bar with my mate, in a bad area, in a dangerous country. My mate told me we should leave because things were looking sketchy, and we had run out of money. Both of us reasonably drunk. I was starting to get the feeling of panic. We managed to get outside and i ordered a taxi. My mate ran back inside to piss after I had told him don’t fucking go back inside. After waiting ages I went back in and found the bar owner pushing drugs onto my mate. This was very very illegal in this country, like jail for foreigners, and my mate was trying to play it cool but whispered to me that it was a very bad situation because he couldn’t say no to this guy but he had no cash. Luckily, I had a spare emergency note of the biggest denomination in my pocket which was just enough to cover the drugs. We finally got outside.
The bar owner offered to call us a taxi and when I told him I already had, he seemed very irritated. I don’t know what would have happened if we had taken his taxi.
I’ve ommitted many details so this may seem less scary than it was at the time. But to this day it haunts me, and I wonder how close I came to being kidnapped and ransomed, or blackmailed, or worse.
When you’re in foreign countries, don’t be stupid. Stay in the safe places. Stay the fuck away from anything sketchy.
Your buddy is lucky to have a friend like you. Sorry you had to go through that.
Thanks, I hope I get over the anxiety about it one day. I would be happy if my story can eventually save someone else. He ended up saving my life in a different situation only a few days later.
Ten years ago I went to a work colleague’s stag-do. I got very drunk off of numerous pints of lager and shots and the night was going great, until we went to a gay nightclub.
Someone in our group got very belligerent with me when he was asking me what kind of drink I’d want. At the time, I thought he was going to seriously hurt me (the alcohol was probably clouding my judgement), so I quietly removed myself from the situation and literally ran from that place.
Unfortunately, the “friend” who I met up with after I bolted took me back to that place because he was more interested in scoring cocaine and dancing with other men than looking out for me.
Rural Thailand. About an hour out of Chiang Mai. Bunch of the lads in the Muay Thai gym I trained out of were having fights at this event. Great experience. All going very smoothly and culturally very different (I’d say our small group were the only non-Thais there and we were with a bunch of Thais) which was great.
Now the Thais are very fond of betting on these fights and sometimes the bets are big. Spices things up. Anyway later on in the evening one lad kicks another up and down the ring but the judges call it for the other side.
The crowd went absolutely wild thinking it was a fix (honestly I think it was, it wasn’t even close). The judges were starting to get bustled away for their safety and I see some very very irate lad coming with a hammer ready to do some damage.
Funnily enough one of the other Irish lads I was with who spent a long time over there training and fighting was fully chill. I was not haha.
It was a long time ago so I can’t remember with certainty if that was the end of the night but I think it was.
I loved my time in Chiang Mai, I could totally imagine this happening
Superb city. Absolutely loved it there. Was not a fan of Bangkok tbh but CM was great.
This little event was really in the arse end of nowhere. Absolutely fantastic experience. I threw a few words of Thai at one guy when trying to find the toilet and we instantly became besties.
Love the Thais generally. They’re so kind and patient.
Absolutely. I arrived thinking the name “land of smiles” was just tourist marketing but it’s completely true. I enjoyed having a pint of Guinness in the random “Irish” pub in CM too. It was too novel not to.
Haha. How was the pint? The rule is that Guinness usually doesn’t travel well. I don’t go to the pub very often but always drink Guinness when I do but I find it grand abroad tbh.
One of my best memories of CM was a BBQ place that was incredible. Nom nom nom nom nom.
Having had pints in Ireland and the US… not the best, haha
Hahaha. I guess it was a stretch to expect in fairness.
In 2011, I worked in West Bromwich, greater Birmingham, UK, on Birmingham Road, where it joined High Street. The news had been reporting on riots starting in Tottenham, London, and it was said that they were spreading. One lunch time during this time, I went out to get lunch from a great Indian sweet shop called Dhillons that did an amazing Samosa Chaat, which was about 5 minutes walk down the road from our office. As I got closer, I could see a crowd and police further down the road, not far from the sweet shop, and coming towards me. Then I saw smoke, and turned around, and went back to the office, without my samosa chaat. Loads of busies with full blues and two’s on (police cars with sirens and lights on) started whizzing past, towards the trouble, and this continued all afternoon. When I left, the air was cloyed with smoke, and the street towards the sweet shop was cordoned off. The next day we learnt that the sweet shop got smashed up, and their van was torched, one of many that got hit. Nearly got caught up in a riot!
This lady on the street wanted me to get her a Popeye’s chicken sandwich, and she offered to pay me back with a blowjob.
That was a wild lunch break.
One time I was waiting for the bus and a homeless guy offered me a bj. I politely declined. He persisted and tried to convince me. Idk what his deal was, he didn’t seem drunk or anything. It was the middle of the day too, like 3pm. People were around. Wierd
Just a bro try’na help another bro out.
For real? Were there cameras rolling? Damn, I hope the ride was uneventful for the remainder.
It wasn’t in the bus, it was at the bus stop. And yes that was the only wierd thing
Who hasn’t sucked dick for a chicken sandwich?
Passing a chicken sandwich though the urethra sounds challenging…
Think I’ll stick to KFC.
people got into fights over those chicken sandwiches 😂
You left out the most important part! How was the head?
Somehow, the less teeth they have, the more teeth you feel, so not great.
teeth you feel,
I call the situation a bit risky when she’s still hungry.
Popeyes is fire.
Did you buy her one? She must have been desperate.
I did, but she wasn’t there when I got back.
Eh, at least you got food for later.
Aww, shame. But great that you tried.
