# What's your best/worst/weirdest experience running into an ex? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 7, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908 "2010-07-07T22:55:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/41 "2010-07-15T17:45:53Z")
At least you had your loyal Negro pianist to keep you company. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/42 "2010-07-15T17:59:43Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > At least you had your loyal Negro pianist to keep you company. Man, of all the gin joints in all the towns in the world, she walked into his. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/43 "2010-07-15T22:09:31Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I can hear her moving furniture around right now, in the unit above me. What? I’m the only one the mentally queued up Knock Three Times? ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/44 "2010-07-15T23:05:50Z")
> [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](#): > > I wouldn’t call him my “ex” exactly…but I answered a personal ad, and it turned out to be a guy whose personal ad I’d answered two years earlier. He’d never called me after our one brief meeting, and in fact I found that so insulting that I swore off personal ads as a way to meet people. I finally regain the courage, and who do I meet? The same guy. > > This time we got married, though. [OT]Hey, **Cranky** , I totally did a double take when I saw your name – haven’t seen you in eons! How the hell are you? [/OT] Anyway – so what was his explanation for blowing you off the first time you met him? ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/45 "2010-07-17T20:18:12Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > A couple of years later I was running a bar in Morocco, and one night she walked into it. With her husband - **who it turned out she’d been married to the whole fucking time she and I had been together.** Whoa whoa whoa…how, precisely, did you find that out? ---
**Author:** ![pricciar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@pricciar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pricciar)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/46 "2010-07-17T20:43:39Z")
I don’t mean to speak for **jjimm** , but he probably found out when she explained why she stood him up at the train station. I am sure he was gobsmacked. I hope he was able to start a beautiful friendship out of the whole ordeal. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/47 "2010-07-18T01:23:18Z")
\*\* jimm\*\*, you’ve got a job to do. No one can follow you. None of us can be any part of it. Sure, you’ll tell us that your no good at being noble, but you’ll tell us that the problems of the Dopers don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday… you’ll understand that. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/48 "2010-07-18T01:56:18Z")
About 35 years ago I was dating a certain woman. She broke up with me. Basically the relationship wasn’t going anywhere, and even though I pretty much agreed with this, I took it medium hard. Last year I ran into her. She had two kids and is divorced: her husband fell in love with one of the kids’ teachers! We talk for a while, and she says, “You know, I think of you almost every day.” I took this nonchalantly–with a huge double-take and my jaw dropping to the floor. She explained. At the time I had a motorcycle (Honda 360) and I had taken her on a couple of short trips in the city. She said she found it really scary! Understandable, but she said nothing about that at the time. Anyway, she remembers me and being scared every time she sees a motorcycle. ---
**Author:** ![tygre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@tygre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygre)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/49 "2010-07-18T02:19:31Z")
I ran into (almost literally) my then-separated ex husband at a library booksale. I thought, “hey, someone here is wearing Safari (his cologne)” then the guy in front of me turned around and it was him. Kind of awkward seeing as I was stopping at the sale and then going off to meet my boyfriend at a hotel for a weekend of debauchery, so when he said “what are you doing this weekend?” I didn’t quite answer, heh. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/50 "2010-07-18T02:56:38Z")
I ran into Ex #1 about a year after we split up. I had been working out, and I was wearing a wife beater showing off the guns. It seems she had been consoling herself with food. Lots of food. Sweet. ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2010, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/51 "2010-07-18T13:32:05Z")
My wife and I had been married for three and half years at the time and we enjoyed taking walks in the evening. One night, while out for a walk, we walked right passed my ex, someone that I had had a very messy breakup with. **Mrs. kidneyfailure** had heard stories about her but never had seen her, so she chatted on, completely oblivious as to who was passing us by on the sidewalk. But ex and I locked eyes. Her mouth opened a little as if she had something she wanted to say, but she kept walking on. Finally, she got to a curve in the road, stood there for a few seconds, waved to me limply, and walked off. Never saw her again. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/52 "2010-07-20T12:26:56Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > What? I’m the only one the mentally queued up Knock Three Times? I heard it too… the song just started on your mental radio before it started on mine. Gotta get that delay issue fixed! ---
**Author:** ![DragonAsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DragonAsh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DragonAsh)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/53 "2010-07-20T12:57:38Z")
Not quite a ‘meet the ex’ story, but… well, I was getting kind of bored with the woman I was with at the time. Probably just a run-of-the-mill ennui when you date too long. One morning she was sleeping in while I was reading the weekend paper. A personals ad caught my eye. Seemed like a woman who wasn’t afraid to to be caught in a bit of summer rain, someone reaosonably OK with social drinking. A bit of a romantic (moonlight-lit beaches, etc). I answered the ad and made plans to meet at a local Irish pub. I got there first and waited with high expectations - but I recognized her the second she walked in. It was the same woman I had been with the whole time! ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/54 "2010-07-20T13:50:14Z")
> [@DragonAsh](#): > > I answered the ad and made plans to meet at a local Irish pub. > > I got there first and waited with high expectations - but I recognized her the second she walked in. It was the same woman I had been with the whole time! So. Instant relationship end, given that both of you now had proof positive the other was looking elsewhere? ---
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/55 "2010-07-20T13:54:44Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > So. Instant relationship end, given that both of you now had proof positive the other was looking elsewhere? Which they discussed over pina coladas . . . .whoosh. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/56 "2010-07-20T13:59:31Z")
> [@melodyharmonius](#): > > Which they discussed over pina coladas . . . .whoosh. I hope the bar had a good buffett. Jimmy Buffett at least. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/57 "2010-07-20T14:07:21Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > I hope the bar had a good buffett. > > Jimmy Buffett at least. 😉 They did - but I got here first and ate the last cheeseburger in paradise. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/58 "2010-07-20T17:39:27Z")
Dated First Girlfriend when I was a senior in High School and she was a junior. I went to college, saw her at spring break – and we were broken. I stayed friendly with her family, and even babysat for her older sister’s kids when I was home for the summers. One evening, the kids had some playmates over; one of them a very well-behaved little guy. I mentioned this to the older sister, and she said, “Oh, that’s (First Girlfriend)'s stepson!” So I had been babysitting my ex’s kid, kinda sorta. The winter after I graduated from college, FG’s twin sister got married. FG was there, of course and she and I started talking at the reception. We hadn’t seen each other in about 4 years, and we were getting along really well, just chatting, playing catch-up, walking and talking. Did I mention there was an open bar? Anyway, we’re walking and talking, and talking and walking, and we walk up to a door and my mom comes out, and says, “Where do you think YOU’RE going?!” I was about to follow FG into the ladies room. I decided the time for walking and talking was over. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/59 "2010-07-20T18:17:52Z")
I was in the grocery store on Christmas Eve right before it was supposed to close, picking up some beer and some last-minute supplies for the big dinner the next day. While I was looking at frozen green beans for the green bean casserole, I felt someone touch my arm. Turns out it was my old ex-boyfriend. Took me a second to recognize him–it had been a while, and I was a little freaked out at the time that some random guy was touching me. I hugged him and dropped a few things from my purse onto his shoes and we both started cracking up laughing. We kept talking as I went to the checkout aisle. Decided to go grab a beer or two, but we couldn’t find a single bar open in the entire neighborhood, plus it had started to snow. So we ended up getting a six-pack instead, and drank it in the car. I told him how I was married and we had a decent life, and he said that I looked great after so long. I told him that I’d seen him around a few times, and knew that he was doing well for himself also. I ended up dropping him off, gave him a kiss, and watched him staring at my car in the rearview mirror as I drove away, the snow turning into cold December rain. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908/60 "2010-07-20T19:38:42Z")
> [@Drain\_Bead](#): > > I was in the grocery store on Christmas Eve right before it was supposed to close, picking up some beer and some last-minute supplies for the big dinner the next day. While I was looking at frozen green beans for the green bean casserole, I felt someone touch my arm. Turns out it was my old ex-boyfriend. Took me a second to recognize him–it had been a while, and I was a little freaked out at the time that some random guy was touching me. I hugged him and dropped a few things from my purse onto his shoes and we both started cracking up laughing. > > We kept talking as I went to the checkout aisle. Decided to go grab a beer or two, but we couldn’t find a single bar open in the entire neighborhood, plus it had started to snow. So we ended up getting a six-pack instead, and drank it in the car. I told him how I was married and we had a decent life, and he said that I looked great after so long. I told him that I’d seen him around a few times, and knew that he was doing well for himself also. > > I ended up dropping him off, gave him a kiss, and watched him staring at my car in the rearview mirror as I drove away, the snow turning into cold December rain. Damn you for this earworm! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-best-worst-weirdest-experience-running-into-an-ex/545908.md?page=4)