re: What's your greatest "what a coincidence" story?

About three weeks ago, I went to Cubs game while on business in Chicago. During the game, I sat next to a couple who are educators. They invited me to join them for beers with some of their educator friends at a bar across the street (Murphys). I was wearing an LSU shirt and one of the guys in their group told me he was a hs baseball coach and had coached a few Tigers during Summer camp. We spent several minutes talking LSU baseball. He invited me to tailgate with his crew the next night. I couldn't go due to business obligation.

Last week, I'm in SF on business and my son and I take in some Giants games. Bought our tix to specifically sit in the upper deck for the view of the bay the first game of the Cubs-Giants series. As my son and I are walking to our seats in the corridor, I hear, "dude, remember me? From Chicago?" It was the hs baseball coach I'd first met 2 weeks before in chicago. He was there to watch the Cubs game and was sitting in the section right below us.

Met a guy in China from Baton Rouge... he had never eaten crawfish. He ate dogs and horse, but never crawfish. Not a coincidence, he's just a dumb arse.

This thread has reminded me that a shite LOAD of people grow up in a single place, marry someone from that place who runs with similar people, and die in that place.

Sad

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My fianceé and I didn't meet until we were in our mid 20s despite growing up just 2 cities apart.

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When you say cities... Are you talking about more along the lines of "small towns"Even then, I live in a smaller town and I am thinking about two cities apart from me and meeting someone from there wouldn't really be a coincidence.

My girlfriend's mother, my girlfriend's uncle's ex-wife, and my girlfriend's dad's new girlfriend all have the same birthday.

Texted a picture of my wife and I having dinner in San Francisco to my siblings. Within a minute I received a picture of my wife and I having dinner in San Francisco.

It was taken from several tables over by one sibling who lives in Chicago that I had not seen in 2 years. We shared dinner, wine and some laughs and I haven't seen her since which is almost 2 years.

Going into college I had an older brother that I moved in with my freshman year of college.
We had a 4 bedroom house with 2 other guys from our fraternity. We didn't realize until later that my roommate and fiancée at the time went to elementary school together. Pulled out the year book and turns out they were in the same class/pictures together. Small world.

When I started college, I'd get a lot of funny looks from the upperclassmen. Quizical looks. Turned out, there was a guy who had just graduated with the same first and last name as me.

Got a student intern job with a state agency...one of the guys there was roommates with the "other me".

Graduated college...got a job with another state agency..."other me" worked in another office a few years before me.

We have yet to meet (and no, my name isn't anything like John Smith or Mark Johnson).

About a year ago my fiancé and I go to eat lunch at some Mexican restaurant we had never been to before here in the Upstate. On the way there we were talking about our trip to Cozumel and how I wanted her to get certified in scuba before we go on another Caribbean vacay. As we walk in I'm telling her a story about getting certified when I worked in Saudi. I was taking a rescue diver course with one other guy that worked for the same company as I did back then.(roughly 25 years before)
So as I'm telling her what a cluster this class had been I hear a familiar voice. I look past my fiancé and sitting at the table behind her is the same fricking guy I was just telling her about in the story! After a few minutes his name finally came to me about the time I hear him mention something about working in Saudi years back to the others at his table.
I waited until he finished his talk before I whistle loud enough to get the tables attention, whereby I then made a remark along the lines of "Why don't you tell them the story about when you were getting a Rescue Diver certification and damn near drowned the fat-arse guy acting like the incapacitated diver."
You could have heard a pin drop, as he leaned over to see who had said that. As we locked eyes I watched as he went from a look of curiosity to one of absolute incredulousness.(Mind you, it had been @ 25 years ago that this had occurred)
I laughed and stood up as it finally hit him who I was, whereupon hand-shakes, high fives and belly laughs erupted all around.
It was pure coincidence because he was visiting an old friend who worked in Greenville who happened to live just down the road from this restaurant. My old acquaintance was working in Texas and had flown in with his family to see this guy and his family.
Needless to say many cervezas, margaritas and tequila shots were consumed as we caught up on the years and escapades since we had worked together.

To this day my fiancé still shakes her head about what an absolute million to one shot it was for us to go there that day and happen to see my former coworker.

When I was 21-22, I was tripping my butt off one afternoon and fricking around with shite in my kitchen. I grabbed a tortilla and noticed a pattern in it that looked just like Jesus. I exclaimed, "You're Jesus!" And it looked back up and me and said, "No bro, I'm just your tortilla."