On The Small Chances That Bring People Together

In My Humble Opinion
1

About ten years ago, I had just started teaching in an English school in Japan. One morning I arrived early at work to find a colleague, Richard, trying to fax something but unable to work the machine.

It turned out that he had a part-time job for a few hours a week teaching English to a class run at the local city office: as he was leaving the country soon, he was looking to give it up, and was trying to fax around other schools to find someone to take over.

The money was pretty good for little work, and as I had time on my hands then I said I’d save him the trouble of faxing and do it myself: he agreed, and took me in the next week, introduced me to the class, and so I stepped into his shoes.

I was in the habit of arriving early each morning every week to prepare materials, and I’d invariably stop and chat with one of the city office employees, a beautiful woman a couple of years younger than I was, who was in charge of co-ordinating similar programs. Her English was excellent, and she enjoyed the chance to practice it, while I enjoyed her practicing it on me.

It so happened that she only worked mornings at the city office, and in the afternoon took the train to Osaka to her other job at a travel agency: as I lived in central Osaka at the time, more often than not we’d meet again on the same train and talk some more, and we both grew to look forward to these meetings.

You can see where this is heading, can’t you? The train meetings turned into lunch dates, the lunch dates became dinner and drinks, dinner and drinks would end in her staying over at my apartment, and soon we were boyfriend and girlfriend. She moved in with me a year or so after that, a few years later we became engaged, then we had a son, and after I returned to New Zealand she came with me. Our son is now three.

All of this came about because Richard was unable to work the fax machine all those years ago. Odd, when you think about it. What small chances have shaped your relationships?

2

A friend and I were heading into the old 9:30 club in DC. A couple of women were parking in front of the club and asked us if it was legel to park there. We didn’t know, but my friend noticed a sticker on the back windshield that read “Mount Holyoke College”. My friend asked “where’s Mount Holyoke?” I chimed in that it’s a women’s college in Massachusetts. One of the women was impressed by that; the other, recognizing me and my friend’s accents, asked “so, are you guys from the south?” kind of sarcastically. I replied “I’m from Arkansas” The other woman said “hey, my grandparents live in Arkansas”. We talked briedfly then went our seperate ways in the club. I saw her with a group of men and women, but I didn’t know if she was with someone or not. Later, I passed by her in the club and she gave me a little wave. So, not being an idiot, I took that as my cue to chat her up[. I did, she gave me her phone number, and after I called the next day, we’ve been together ever since, married with three children!
Sorry, I’ve probably told this story a dozen times on this board.

3

There’s no romance in this story, but I was thinking about it just the other day:

Approximately five years ago, the company I worked for moved from one part of town to another (literally down the road). I wound up with a cubicle, which I grumbled about to my boss, and he told me that as soon as an interior office became available he’d see about moving me into it. Shortly thereafter someone got fired, and I pointed out to my boss that the newly-vacant office was an interior one. MINE! Because it was a firing and not a resignation the previous occupant hadn’t been given the opportunity to clean out his office, so I volunteered to help clean it out with one of the guys he used to work with – a guy named Steve, who sat just across the hall from my “new” office. Steve had been with the company for much longer than I had, but we’d never met before because in the old building our paths had just never crossed. Cleaning out the other guy’s office was a pretty significant undertaking, but Steve and I discovered that we got along very well and we bonded over the experience.

Today, Steve and his wife are my best friends, and I am “Aunt Jenny” to their 3-year-old son. I can’t imagine my life without them.

To think that Steve and I might not have met if our company hadn’t moved, if my boss hadn’t been willing to let me go into an office, and if that other guy hadn’t gotten fired! :slight_smile:

4

What small chances have shaped your relationships?

  1. My maternal great-grandmother’s first husband died. She remarried my great-grandfather.

  2. My maternal grandfather’s first wife died. He remarried my maternal grandmother.

  3. My paternal grandfather’s first wife died. He remarried my paternal grandmother.

  4. My paternal grandmother’s first husband died. She remarried my paternal grandfather.

  5. Both grandmothers were in their forties when my parents were born. My paternal grandfather was in his sixties.

  6. My father was the youngest in a blended family of seventeen children.

The chances that I’m actually posting this at SDMB are slim to none.

5

Well…

I was a fan of the Smiths in the 80s. I forgot about them.
I became a huge fan of Blur in the 90s. I began reading/watching anything and everything about them. Graham Coxon mentioned Morrissey in a documentary. I remembered how I loved the Smiths and began listening to Morrissey. Became a huge fan.
My first boyfriend began playing Everquest. He allowed me to create a character on there.
I was playing one evening and there was someone in the zone named “Markissey”. Beyond corny. I asked him if he was a fan of Morrissey, and he was.
We had something in common, so we began “hanging out” in game, playing together.
Found out we had a LOT in common.
I left my boyfriend (for unrelated reasons). Several months later I began dating this Everquest guy.
Flew out to see him. We got engaged.
He invited his best friend over. I stayed friends with him.
Got dumped by fiance.

I married his best friend. I blame Graham Coxon. :smiley:

6

That’s {sniff} so beautiful.

7

My parents met on the #80 Av. du Parc bus. The bus was delayed due to a driver change, and the drivers took a bit longer than they might have chatting. My mom laughed at the absurdity, and my dad noticed her. Then they got off at the same stop and my dad chatted her up. My mom’s first though was “Who is this loser?” and then thought, “Well, you’ll never meet anyone if you’re so stuck up.”

They went to dinner and the rest is history. I owe my life to Montreal public transit.

8

That was me, sorry.

9

In my junior year of high school I was taking a Multimedia course. There were 2 periods this course was in, first hour, and sixth hour. I was in sixth. Towards the end of the year, my teacher decided that the two sections together could take on the ambitious project of creating an online version of our school’s Student Handbook. We were divided into different groups and so on, and I was put in charge of the entire sixth hour overall.

A few days after we’d begun, my teacher found out that the person who was in charge in the first hour had his sixth hour class next door and didn’t have anything to do, so she asked him over to work on the project with me. We hit it off right away, started dating, and we’re now engaged. We joke that my teacher intentionally played matchmaker with us–but I don’t really think so. It was just a small little class project that led to all this.

10

When I was an unemployed and struggling writer my wife (stay with me) suggested I take a writing workshop at a local college. I didn’t want to spend the money, but she insisted.

So I’m in the class. I write science fiction and read a few stories (including the one that eventually was my first sale). In the class was a woman about my age (though she looked younger) who also wrote SF. After one of her stories, I went over to her after class and told her how much I liked it. She seemed embarassed by the attention.

The class continued. Some of us decided to meet after it ended to keep workshopping.

Then, my wife dumped me. So I was unemployed, with my marriage breaking up and – for some inexplicable reason – depressed. About the only think I had going for me was my writing and the workshop group.

The next time we tried to get together for the writing group, it turned out that she and I were the only ones there. So we talked. That kept happening. Eventually, after my separation came through, I asked her out.

We’ve been married for 22 years now. And it all happened because my ex-wife insisted I go to that class.

11

I think the story of my adoption fits this theme. I’ve never met my birth mother, but I inadvertently learned some of her story when I requested some medical background from the adoption agency a few years ago.

Apparently she was in an abusive marriage and had separated from her husband. During that time she had a brief fling, maybe even a one-night stand with a soldier stationed in her town, and became pregnant with me. Then, her no-good husband persuaded her to come back to him, but only on the condition that I be put up for adoption.

I did also hear that she finally left him for good, married again and had a couple more kids.

My husband credits our relationship to the fact that our dorm was constructed so that I had to walk past his room everytime I went in or out of the building.

I credit it to the fact that the guy I had been going out with for 6 months decided I wasn’t posh enough to meet mummy and Parents Day was coming up.

12

I think my husband and I were destined to be together. He used to work for a company that did business with the company my mother worked for. My mom, teasing him on the phone one day, said, “If you could get this deal to go through for me I’d give you my first-born.” He laughed and said that wasn’t necessary and he was pretty sure his wife would object.

About a year later, he received an anonymous phone call from a woman who informed him that his wife was cheating on him. As it happened, the woman was telling the truth, and he and his wife got divorced. He told my mom this, and on a whim, my mom said, “Well, all is not lost - you can still claim my first-born.” He laughed, said he’d be delighted to meet me, and the three (!) of us went out for dinner. The rest, as they say, is history, and we’ll celebrate our 16th anniversary this summer.

Now for the Paul Harvey “rest of the story” part: remember the woman who made that anonymous call? We found out who she was. She was a co-worker of his former wife’s…and the aunt of my high school sweetheart.

13

My dad had just broken up with his fiancée and sworn off women because: 1. She was crazy and 2. He wasn’t getting any loving. His roommate wanted to go to a party because a cute coed that he had his eye on was going. He brought Dad along as “wingman.” The cute coed had a “wingirl” along. She and Dad discussed tomatoes. 2 years later they were married. 6 months after that I was born. :smiley: Dad’s pretty sure the only reason he was cool and collected enough to bag Mom was becuase he had sworn off women and not looking for a relationship.

There was this guy who worked in the business computer lab at my college. I thought he was cute. Turns out his friend, we’ll call him Bob, was into matchmaking, mostly because he was married but still enjoyed the pursuit of women folk. Bob tried to match me up with computer guy, but computer guy turned out to be a real ass. Luckily, Bob and I remained good friends.

Later, closer to graduation, Bob got me together with another guy, boy #2. I was crazy enough for this guy that I decided to stop looking for jobs that were far away and concentrate on staying close. Bob recommends I get a job at the place he was hired for after graduation. I do so. Of course I make the classic girl mistake of telling boy #2 that I stuck around to be with him, he freaks out and breaks up with me two days before I start the job. Well crap.

My first day at work I am in a fog of breakup and knowing I am gonna hate this job. After a few days I get out of my funk and start making friends with the people in my training class, including the future Bird Man. Bird Man was fresh off a relationship where his fiancée was his boss. He was broken up with, fired, and kicked out of his home all on the same day.

Bird Man had applied for the job a few months before I had, but ended up in my training class because he had scheduling conflicts for the month he was supposed to start. If we had ended up in different classes we probably would never have met.

So I owe my life to a bad breakup from a crazy fiancée, and my future marriage to one as well. I also owe my future marriage to a couple really bad crushes, a really bad job, and a really good friend. So, yeah…silver lining and whatnot.

14

I didn’t want to be in the band in college. It’s hard to remember why now, but I think it was mostly that I just couldn’t be bothered to go to the registration/try-out they had the first couple days I was on campus. Nonetheless, mostly to get my parents off my back, I signed up anyway and decided to go to the first couple rehearsals. I loved it. That semester I met many of the guys who are still my good friends, and most of my other good friends are guys who joined the band the next year. Moreover, I met my wife at the band Christmas party.

–Cliffy