These 17 people will never meet, see or talk with these strangers ever again, but they'll always remember that special moment they shared together.
The Trumpeter
I was running on the beach with my stepdad in Santa Cruz. I'm not a runner, but he is, and he was pushing me and encouraging me. Anyway, it was early in the morning, and one of the few other people on the beach at that time was a guy practicing his trumpet, just playing it to the waves. He saw us run by a few times, and that I was struggling a little, so he turned toward us and starts playing the Rocky theme music. I felt like I could have run a marathon, I was so pumped. Freakin' awesome!
The Girl In The Shower
One of the girls who lives next door sings in the shower. She's really good. I can hear it in the whole upstairs but if I'm in the bathroom, I'll do backup vocals or we'll duet. There's a good chance we'll meet, yes, but it's been going on for about two months now and we haven't yet.
The Pirate In The Bookstore
I walked into Barnes and Noble to buy a CD for my dad. A couple minutes later, a guy in a pirate costume shows up. He notes that he's disgruntled about the lack of pirate music. We talked about sound systems on boats and stuff. Then he left.
The Varsity Football Player
In my typing class my freshman year I left open a word doc on the desktop saying hello. The next day the person in the period after mine replied. We left each other messages in the document for the entire semester. It ended up being one of our more popular varsity football players. I was a tuba player in marching band. At games I'd see him after halftime, and he always made a point to bump fists as the team went back out. We never really hung out or anything, but knowing that a 'jock' understood that the band geeks were really there to support the team was pretty cool. Our senior year the football team ended up going all the way to state semifinals. Sadly we lost, but at the end of the game he came up to me and shook my hand before thanking me for the cool music.
The Woman At The Grocery Store
I had all I needed for dinner except a potato to bake. I went to the shop and bought one large potato. As I paid, the woman in front looked back at me and said, "I like a man who only buys one potato."
The Netflix Hacker
My Netflix account was hacked two years ago, but the person left the password unchanged, and used the account in secret. I realized because the 'recently watched' bar was filled with stuff I had never watched. Ever since then this man/woman and I have been adding things to the queue so the other can watch it. We let the other rate it and the rating is like our way of saying whether we liked the movie or not.
The person has never contacted me. I assume he/she has my email though, because they hacked my account. I am content going the rest of my life never seeing or talking to this person because I have this picture of them in my head, and I don't want to be disappointed.
The Lady On The Phone
I met a woman named Beth after she dialed the wrong number trying to reach her nephew who, oddly enough, had the same name as myself. We talked for quite a while. She asked questions about how my family was, how I was, etc. all while I'm thinking "Who IS this?! They know my name…must be a friend of Mom's or something…." Then we realized her mistake. A week later she called back to see if I'd had any success with my interview and to talk a bit more.
The Doppelgänger
Was on a particular sharing network and some dude contacted me about stuff I had. Turns out he used to be in the local bands I had a lot of tunes from. He was happy to see someone listening to the music. Started sending me new demos from his new bands and invited me to a show in my town. Walked in and my friends were mad that I hadn't said hi to them…I was confused as I'd just walked in. Band gets on stage and it turns out that the vocalist I'd been chatting with is my doppelgänger (creepy similar) and my friends at the concert had got us confused.
Running Buddies
I run the loop in Central Park in NYC on weekend mornings and there's always a million people there. Many times you end up running the same pace next to some random stranger. I've run with people for miles at a time, just staying next to each other without acknowledging them at all. I like to say bye if I stop first though.
The High Five In The Middle Of The Intersection
I once high-fived someone on the road. We were both driving my favorite car (Toyota Celica) on a country road. We approached a four-way stop at the same time, and I flashed my badass robo-headlights at him. He flashed his lights also, and we both gunned it straight. Exactly in the middle of the intersection, our outstretched hands collided in the most orgasmically painful, impromptu high five the gods have ever seen.
The Post-It Note Girl
The girl in the apartment under me and I leave post it notes on each other's doors. We make comments about noise we heard from each other's apartment the night before, or to ask if the other will be attending an event in the city. We've never met.
The Girl With The Fake Name
There used to be this girl at my high school (of 4,000 students) that I would see walking around a lot and I didn't have any other way of knowing her. So one day I just blurted out the first name that came to mind and said "Hello Megan!" She looked confused for a second but simply responded "Hello Diego," which was not my name. After that, wherever we would walk past each other we would say hello with our fake names and keep walking like it didn't happen, and this went on for 2 years until she graduated. To this day I don't know her name….
The Guy With The Tiger-Skin Seat Covers
Everyday on my way to work, I see the same man in a tan Jeep Wrangler with aftermarket Tiger-skin seat covers stuck in traffic on the other side of the road. Depending on when I see him, I can determine how on time or late I will be to work. Seems like an interesting enough guy, I just feel bad that he has to sit in terrible traffic on that side every day while I get to zoom by in the other direction. It's been two years now.
The Video Game Players
My friends and I used to go on Xbox Live together and play "Red Dead Redemption." We wouldn't actually play. Instead we would all choose the fat and short Mexican man and the mule, ride into a town in a pack where the other players were, and, usually, get mowed down while we laughed hysterically. One night five other people caught on to what we were doing and joined in. It was a beautiful moment of 12 fat Mexicans on mules slowly rolling into a town in flying-v formation and getting shot down by other strangers in the game.
The Girl From New Zealand
I found out about the website Omegle from a college friend, and would get bored frequently and go on for shits and giggles. One day, at like one in the morning, while procrastinating writing a paper, I decided to go on and met some jerks. At near three in the morning, I was getting sort of tired of talking to weirdos, so I told myself I'd give it one more shot before actually doing things. The girl I met was from New Zealand and we hit it off instantly and talked for nearly 6 hours. Sadly, I had to go to class and leave, but we decided to be Facebook friends. That was in September of 2009. Hardly a day has gone by that we don't talk online, and a lot of the time, we talk for hours on end. She is my best friend, and I hope that when I meet her in person (if it ever happens) she doesn't turn out to be a serial murderer or something, because that would really suck a lot.
The Disgusting Boyfriend
My boyfriend exchanges pictures of poop with some random number. Started as a prank on a friend of a friend of a friend and now it's a regular thing. Always the grossest ones. It bothers me a little.
The Reading Hippy
When I was in college I had a crappy schedule one semester where I had a two hour break between classes and I lived too far to go back home. So I found a little alcove outside of my next class and read there every M,W, F for a semester.
Next semester rolls around and as I walk past that alcove, there is a note asking where the "reading hippy" has gone. I whip out a pen, and write "that they had angered the reading hippy and so he turned his face from them." Next day, there were sacrifices in the alcove (a picture of a KFC bucket, some rocks, etc). This goes back and forth for a while…I leave notes as though I were a god…they try to appease me. Week before finals, I skip a class so I can read in the alcove. They show up, bow to me, yell, "Hail the Hippy Reader," and then leave. It was freaking awesome.