What's your Best Story Ever?

Come on. You know you have one. Your Best Story Ever. Share!

Mine:

In 1999, my friend and I went to Sinai, Egypt, and swam with wild dolphins in the Red Sea. It was a mommy dolphin and her baby dolphin, and they like this beach and playing with the humans who come there. We swam around for several hours. It was amazing. The red spiky mountains of Sinai towering up, the mountains of Saudi Arabia barely visible across the sea, the warm water. And. When I was sort of dog paddling, the baby dolphin came up and bopped me on the right palm with its nose.

Yup. My Best Story Ever. (Actually, now that I think about it, there’s even more to this story. On the way to Sinai, we partied with a cult, and then had a melodramatic scene with the Israeli border patrol. But then it gets too long. Let’s stick to the dolphins.)

My best story:

I was about 19 years old in 1988 and drinking heavily at the bar with friends. Back then, I often drank enough to lose anywhere between minutes and hours. This one particular evening was no different.

I last recall being at the bar chatting with some friends on the upper level. My very next recollection was waking up in a strange bed. I was above the covers, fully clothed, and oddly, flanked on each side by a young lady. I didn’t recognize either of them. They, too, were fully clothed and above the covers. (Read, nothing happened)

I got up slowly and quietly and wandered into the kitchen. I got some water from the refrigerator and went to the front room to look out the window. It didn’t look like any street I’d seen in the small city of 60,000 in which I’d grown up and in which I’d finished drinking the night before.

When waking up after that much drinking, I always needed milk. Unfortunately, there was none in the fridge. So, I decided to go for a little walk to try to find a store. After walking a few blocks and deciding that I was most definitely not in the same municipality as the night before. I found a store before too long and, after getting some milk from the cooler, approached the counter and asked where I was. The clerk told me an intersection, to which I replied, “no, where am I?” He told me the name of the town, which happened to be about 45 minutes south of the place I’d been that prior night.

I walked back to the house and the two gals were up and around when I got back. One said that she wondered where I’d disappeared to. After some introductions (I admitted that I had no idea who either of them were), I asked what the deal was.

One of the girls explained to me that I had offered to drive them home, home being in this small town. I told them that while I was absolutely stupid to have driven, they were nuts to have allowed me to drive their car. They replied that I drove my car - neither of them had one. After a few moments pause to consider what they had told me, I informed them that my car was in the shop getting a new transmission.

We looked out the window and they pointed to the brown late-70s Malibu that I’d driven them home in. I told them I had no idea whose car it was. After trying to imagine how it is that I happened to have keys to a car and drove them home when none of us even had any idea who the car belonged to, we gave up. There was just no logical and likely reason that we could surmise would adequately explain the scenario.

Shortly thereafter, I left the house and walked to the Greyhound station. We agreed that I would just walk away and they would call the cops in an hour or two to let them know that an unknown vehicle was parked in their driveway. I left no name or phone number and didn’t even ask for theirs. I never saw them again.

To this day, I have no idea whose car it was, nor how I happened to have its keys in my possession.

I’d also like to note that I only drove drunk a couple more times in the month or two that followed that event, and have not done so again in the last 14 years. I figured it was important to note that I am now a grownup and know better than to do that before I got castigated.

My best story: Probably Playmates (Fantasy & Science Fiction, May 1986)

However, Curse of the Undead in the anthology Vampires has earned me more money (not counting my novels – see my sig).

Once I made a cup of tea with 39 herbal teabags of about 4 different flavours. Then I DRANK it. Then I was SICK.

Classic story.

Standup Karmic wins thus far. The dolphins are cool, but a mystery is cooler.

NinjaChick, RealityChuck got paid for his !

Mine is probably the one about Sam and the guy’s brains. (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=207192&perpage=50&pagenumber=1) The rest are either too gory or have cutsey children in them.

Once when I was in San Francisco walking through the Tenderloin a drunk wino stumbled into me. (He had the big cheap jug of wine and everything.) He looked up to apologise and it was Robert Downey Jr.

I must have a better one then that, but I was just recently telling someone this so it popped into my mind.

I was stuck in January for 2 hours at the bottom of a snowy mountain after the master cylinder (brakes) failed on my Cherokee. I was stranded because Virginia had the worst sudden snowstorm in several years; resulting in 42 accidents in one county. I had used the friction from a guardrail to slow my descent and was a little battered and bruised but relatively unhurt, so I informed the dispatcher to tell the state trooper to attend to wounded victims first- as I would be fine until someone was free to file a report for my insurance company. Two hours in a blizzard with not another car on the road. Drank two warm cokes. Remembered the plane crash in the Andes and wondered which appendage I would eat first. Determined that as a vegetarian, any portion of my flesh would likely be tender. Realized that as a vegetarian, eating myself would violate some personal ideologies. Came to the conclusion that a circular argument with oneself probably indicated schizophrenia. Played every cd in my jeep (and drums on the steering wheel; spongy brake was my double bass a la Bonzo) until the battery died. Got out, made some snow angels on the bank beside the jeep. Realized snow angels are not the driest or most practical art form when one has no heater. Had to pee- used the guardrail to brace myself and left a rather large mark just behind the jeep.

Finally, Sexy and Capable Trooper Dave arrived. He had seen the red paint on the guardrail at the top of the mountain, and followed the red stread all the way down to the bottom. He seemed surprised and relieved to find me unhurt, and in a relatively good humor in spite colossal boredom and cold, wet clothing. He proceeded to walk around the jeep with a flashlight to detail the damage in his report. I remembered the stain behind the jeep with embarrassment, and tried to think of a way to disguise the spot or at least distract him from it.

I took him by his elbow to the other side of the jeep and pointed at the snowy bank.
“Did you see my snow angels?”
Trooper Dave shined his flashlight on three perfectly executed and hand holding snow angels. I was very proud of my work. Then he shined the flashlight in my pupils. Then he radioed for an ambulance and reported a possible head injury. I spent the next 4 hours in the emergency room explaining myself.

(On a good note, the cat scan didn’t seem to reveal any signs of schizophrenia)

When I was 17, I briefly dated a guy that seemed nice. It turned out that he was living with someone and they were engaged. Hurt, I broke up with him and tried to forget the whole thing. She came to my school threatening to kill me. Luckily, her younger sister was my friend (!) and my life was saved (really). That’s not even the most interesting part.

We all hung out at the roller skating rink. He decided to impress me and came in with a GUN in a duffle bag. He told me later that it was just to impress me, but I wonder… he got really weird after I cut him loose and was stalking me. Anyhow, he was opening a locker to put the bag in and dropped the bag. The gun went off and shot a girl as she was skating on the rink. The bullet hit her in the upper left chest area. So, the police come and arrest him. Meanwhile, thank God, I’m home and have no idea what had happened. Guess who he called with his one phone call?

So, his family posts bail and he somehow gets into the hospital to visit this girl (I can’t remember her name anymore.) They hit it off and start seeing one another. She then begins to call me, telling me to stay away from him or she will kill me, because he talks about me and she is jealous (!). He did end up receiving two years in jail, and served just over a year.

Sheesh. I sure can pick 'em.

Two years ago, when I was nearly 19 years old I became qualified as a Master Helmsman in the US Navy. The process of getting qualified is quite arduous - but nonetheless I quickly earned the trust of my Skipper and was given a licence to drive the 17,000 ton 569 foot ship under the most treacherous of conditions. This got me out of the normal watch rotation which encompassed normal driving. I would only be called upon during Underway Replenishments, (Two or three ships are connected by high volume diesel fuel hoses.), Hurricanes and other bad weather, photo operations, where we play precarious games such as leapfrog (yes, imagine playing leapfrog with an aircraft carrier, destroyer, and a cruiser), and lastly my favorite, pulling into port.

While the rest of my seaman buddies were in the line rooms getting dirty and preparing to moor the ship, I dressed up and manned the helm.

Two such memories will undoubtedly make me nostalgic until the late years of my life.

On September 11, 2001 my ship was ported in Darwin, Australia. It was 11 o’clock at night and the crew was out enjoying drinks on the town, and enjoying a good stretch of the legs. 7 days later we were on station 10 miles off the coast of Pakistan where we deployed our 700 Marines into Afghanistan for three months of fighting. We were 90 days on a ship during the summer in the Persian Gulf with no ports.

Being the first ship on station after 9/11 we were subsequently the first to be relieved. Our first liberty port on the way home was Sydney, Australia. All I can say is that this has been a dream for me since I was a child - and here I was on the helm of a US navy warship, straight away from fighting for my country, slowly cruising by the Sydney Opera House - pushing 30 degree rudders and fighting strong currents. On the pier Sydney’s Navy band played the US national anthem and a huge crowd was amassed to welcome us to their country.

I didnt cry, but I have never in my life felt such so many emotions at once - finally putting my feet on dry land was the cherry on the whip cream.

The other such time was of course pulling back into San Diego at the end of the deployment and being welcomed home by my own country. Thats the best hug mom ever gave me.

All told I pulled into 13 unique ports during my year on the helm;

San Diego, Seal Beach, San Francisco, Ca
Seattle, Wa
Vancouver, Canada
Valdez, Al
Pearl Harbor, Hi
Perth, Sydney, and Darwin, Australia
Bahrain (gulf)
Kuwait

I doubt anyone else will find this interesting, but it makes me smile so I’m posting it!

Last year I started to date this guy I’d already been friends with for a few years on and off. Well we started dateing and after 2 weeks I slept it him. was 17 and he was my first. He went really wierd after that, not coming round, being “busy” when I invited him to go out etc. Well the following week he dumps me and I’m hearbroken, and used.

Flash forward to a few months later. At a party that I didn’t attend he and a girl are getting “friendly” in the corner and she had her hands down his pants. She like him but when he was sober he turned her down. Well she started a rumour that not only does he have a small dick, but he doesn’t last long either. To this day his nickname is “Captain Cum Quick”. You gotta love justice!

The present - He hasn’t had a girlfriend since me, and I have been dateing a wonderful guy for 4 months.

I apologise for the typos

Chortle. Snort. Chortle chortle again. OK, LOL.

In the 70s I lived in a midwestern city. I met a very hansome Italian gentleman. He owned the bar my friend had dragged me to. The first time we went out, he called to tell me the color of the car he’d be driving, so I could match my outfit to it. We went out 6 times, and he drove a different car each time. I figured his daddy owned a car dealership. I was wrong. On our last date, he had occasion to twist around in the seat to reveal a gun in a shoulder holster. I was shocked. He had been very mysterious. I was ready to walk, thinking he must be married, since he wouldn’t tell me his last name. Well, he wasn’t married. His papa wasn’t a car dealer. His bar was called 'lil Nickie’s his father was Nick Savella. I’m not sure if I’ve even spelled it correctly. I didn’t hang around that long.