Terrifying Moments in Everyday Life

WAHT?

When I finally got home, I tore down our long driveway at 30 miles per hour and dashed into the house. It turns out my Grandma from Iowa had made a surprise visit. I ran past my family, bleeding all the way, and down into my basement bedroom. My mom said "Don't get any on the carpet!"

However, a couple months ago one of my neighbors was killed driving behind a log truck on the highway when one of the logs fell out and went through her windshield before she could get out of the way, and now I feel dread (almost terror, but calmer!) whenever I drive behind a log truck and try to pass it as quickly as I can.

xpost wow that's a gross story

He then proceeded to return to yelling, but decided he would stand directly behind me while doing it. Was terrifying...

For myself, I think I've learned my lesson...whatever that may be.

Cleaning up the car afterwards was the weird part. It felt like I was cleaning up after the Manson Family or something.

I ended up getting stung a bit later anyway, blech.

Just now, I was carrying a cup of coffee over from the machine to my couch. When I was halfway through, I felt a sneeze coming on that was too powerful to be stifled. The coffee was filled to the very brim of the cup. I could have quickly placed the cup on the floor, but instead I made a careful dash to the coffee table (a name for a piece of furniture that feels especially apt today). As I was getting near the table, the sneeze started, and my eyes closed. I hoped that I was hovering over the table by this point, and slammed down my cup, just in time. No damage was done. Then I saw that one of my goldfish had died.

This just happened AGAIN, minus the part about the goldfish dying. I guess I should install a conveyor belt going from the coffee machine to the living room, because it's too dangerous nowadays. Alternatively, I could put a lid on my coffee, stay only in the kitchen while drinking coffee, stop filling my coffee cup to the very brim, or stop drinking coffee altogether.

Not filling your cup to the very brim would probably do it. The story's a lot less exciting without the goldfish, though.

something like this has happened to me, except some of the coffee was already in my mouth when the sneeze came on. i managed through great effort not to spray the coffee all over the cubicle wall, but stifling a sneeze with a mouthful of hot coffee is a feat i do not wish to try again.

Oh man, coffee sneeze. That is the worst.

I feel like my upstairs neighbor has a lot of terrifying moments in everyday life. Every time I unexpectedly run into him outside, like if he's walking to his car or taking out the trash, he tenses up, shutters, gets knocked off of his step, struggles through a "h-h-hi...." and then gets the fuck OUT of there.

washing dishes after christmas dinner @ mom's, picked up a stack of plates and the heavy + super-sharp knife used to carve the turkey fell off the countertop & just missed landing on my hand.. about a minute later i was like, d'oh, that could have been bad.

A few years ago, I was crossing the street with with a friend. I looked just before stepping out and held back because a car was coming. My friend didn't, started to step out, realised just in time what was about to happen, the car brushed right past him without stopping. No damage done, but he was talking and laughing at a mile a minute on the adrenaline rush, something like "HAHAHAHAHAA oh shit I nearly got killed there! HAHAHA WOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! didya see that? OMFG!!! HAHAHA!"

lol

oh that reminds me, couple of years ago i nearly got blindsided by a speeding car crossing a street @ jardin de luxembourg. i didn't realize it was a two way but the guy crossing the street in front of me stopped walking, so i stopped sort of reflexively, and the car flew by from the other direction - i got dust on my fingertips from the roof passing right under my hand. that one could have really been bad.

I was once stopped at a red light at a four-lane intersection. I was in the outside lane and some dumb ass Dodge Tahoe Hummer F-1500000 SUV was in the inside lane. Our light turned green, but all I could see to my left was this guy's passenger door handle about eight feet above my head. In about the time it took me to consider this (about the same amount of time it takes to read that last sentence), this other car just flew through the intersection at 75 mph an hour, through his now-red light.

In other words, if I had just gone ahead and gone through the intersection on my green light instead of getting pissed off at the SUV, I would've been T-boned. In which case, I would've still been pissed at the SUV for blocking my view.

A couple weeks ago, a cab came racing through a turn and nearly hit me -- the guy didn't notice and brake (in fresh icy snow!) until the last moment, and the bumper stopped about a yard from my knees. What was agonizing about this was that the cabbie just waved and nodded in an "oops, sorry" way, whereas I was inclined to attack and strangle him. I mean, I know nothing actually happened, but I think almost hitting someone with a car calls for something beyond a non-verbal "my bad" gesture.

(Note: normally I would have been able to run out of the cab's path when I noticed it wasn't slowing down, but I was ankle deep in slush and ice, and somehow it seemed more dangerous to try running, slip, and wind up sprawled on the ground with a cab driving obliviously over me.)

lol nabisco, my wife did something similar in our car to a drunk man staggering across the street, only she stopped a good 10 feet away from him and he didn't notice the car until he turned around and leaped comically into the air, arms flailing and eyes bugging out while shouting "HOLY SHIT! FUCK!"

Our light turned green, but all I could see to my left was this guy's passenger door handle about eight feet above my head. In about the time it took me to consider this (about the same amount of time it takes to read that last sentence), this other car just flew through the intersection at 75 mph an hour, through his now-red light.

In other words, if I had just gone ahead and gone through the intersection on my green light instead of getting pissed off at the SUV, I would've been T-boned. In which case, I would've still been pissed at the SUV for blocking my view.

― өөө (Pleasant Plains), Monday, January 5, 2009 11:34 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is standard arkansas driving by the way. stop isnt red its more red plus slow 1-2-3-4 count.

lol, I was in Fayetteville, Arkansas a few weeks back and we were sitting at an intersection when we got lightly bonked by a car behind us, then saw a pickup a few cars behind that rip around the accident, then drive at a ridic speed waaaay up on the sidewalk, then back on the road, careening toward certain doom. I guess it was a hit and run. It was terrifying and I hope this isn't standard Arkansas driving.

V STANDARD PREPARE FOR DEATH SERIOUSLY

- i'm up in my room on the second floor, kitchen is downstairs
- i'm really hungry
- about 2 hours ago, roommate started having a bit of a serious fight with her bf downstairs by the kitchen. sounds like a potential end of the relationship kind of fight. i figured it would be really awkward to go downstairs at that moment, so i held off on making dinner.
- they're still fighting, more intensely now, and now i'm really, really hungry and i still can't figure out how to get downstairs to eat.
- why is this so hard

dial a pizza?

i know i should just go down there. but i can kind of predict that they'll just sit down there in silence, mid-argument, fuming with each other but pretending to read a book, for 10-20 minutes while i bumble around the kitchen, and it will be a nightmare.

be kind to your stomach and take the plunge. they will not harm you.

i finally went down there, and realized that they were in their bedroom upstairs, with the door closed, the entire time.

is the capability to worry oneself to death with absolutely zero cause a uniquely human characteristic?

oh god I am this all the time

Getting lost in Baltimore, MD after sundown. A 10 minute trip back to the hotel turned into a four hour excursion through locations from The Wire. Cell had died, no gps.

I would have called for a pizza and told the driver "throw pebbles at the second floor window facing northeast, bring a grappling hook"

"They're role playing a couple breaking up - it's a sex fantasy thing, just keep ringing the bell and shouting 'Here's you're extra pepperoni!'."

Also they're into misuse of your/you're.

lol snoball

Actually that reminds me of the time that I was drunk and standing outside underneath the second floor window of a friend's ex-boyfriend, in the middle of the night, chanting "You've got a small pe-nis!".

is the capability to worry oneself to death with absolutely zero cause a uniquely human characteristic?

don't "dell-ize" your life, be real

but yeah, having to be around ppl fighting always makes me feel uncomfortable. like the joke "oh mom and dad are fighting again..." lends legitimacy, b/c in all honesty that was a really disturbing part of my childhood.

i think i largely hate conflict to this day b/c my parents were so bad at it??

same thing here

me too. It makes me really panicky, like either I'm going to get in trouble/yelled at myself, or someone else is going to get hurt. It's an awful feeling.

yeah in some ways my greatest goal in life up to this point has been "don't get yelled at"

which hasn't worked out so well. so time to re-strategize i guess

but some people are addicted to yelling, which i can kind of get.

I even get panicky if I find myself in interwebs arguments. :/

I think it's why I like fake-shouting in the IA thread...so I can be shouty about *something*

ha, sure.

but i feel it makes me "bad" at real life.

like part of the description of being an adult is that you can voice your grievances, but without making ad hominem attacks or similar. that is still so difficult for me. in my case sadly i think it tends to overboil in some passive-aggressive sense.

mine is - having to take a massive dump while driving in an unfamiliar city and seeing no gas stations around.

which happened in Chicago once.

I lived to fight another day.

but I almost did not

xxpost fortunately it just shot out my mouth and not through my nose, but I do think my nasal cavity needs a scrub so if it happen it happen

lol if you just delete "xxpost" from your post, it immediately gets even more terrifying

you should not be taking massive dumps back out your mouth, and i'm sure at least some of that DID get in your nasal cavity! just horrible, worst case scenario

welp guess which wikipedia article i’m not gonna link, it’s this one

oh wait, no, did i just… sorry.

it's ok, we've all seen that South Park episode

Urgently trying to find a usable public restroom in Chicago if you don't already know the lay of the land (and sometimes even if you do) truly is a terrifying moment.

it was my first time there. I had a bit of a photo finish as my phone was dead and I had no car charger.

i was at a woman's house and she pointed to a spot on the floor and said matter-of-factly "that's where my baby died last year" and i stammered out something like oh my god, i'm so sorry, i can't imagine how terrible that must have been, and she continued "he had a heart attack and was just gone" and i was trying to fit this together in my mind -- babies can have heart attacks? he must have had some kind of condition? -- but before i could embarrass myself too thoroughly it came out that her baby was a dog

it was a little bit socially terrifying for a minute there. what is the appropriate reaction to someone seeming blasé abt their dead child, and do you carefully walk around that spot on the floor, but it wasn't marked in any way, what if i accidentally walked on it and she started crying, is there a baby ghost here, is this lady's sublimated grief going to manifest itself in freaky ways, and if so should i try to be supportive or just gtfo

she was cool tho and if her dog was a ghost it was a very well behaved one.

it was a little bit socially terrifying for a minute there. what is the appropriate reaction to someone seeming blasé abt their dead child, and do you carefully walk around that spot on the floor, but it wasn't marked in any way, what if i accidentally walked on it and she started crying, is there a baby ghost here, is this lady's sublimated grief going to manifest itself in freaky ways, and if so should i try to be supportive or just gtfo

it's a tough one. i've dealt with it a lot - people who have been through unspeakably awful trauma bringing it up in casual conversation. i've done it myself sometimes, though i try not to. it's socially inappropriate behavior; it's known as "trauma dumping". i'm not saying that in terms of judging her. of course you're sympathetic. she's been through something that's probably more awful than you can imagine. you are of course going to feel uncomfortable, is the takeaway here.

the way i learned you're supposed to handle these things is to say "i'm sorry, that sounds awful to go through". there's not really anything else you can say about something like that.

i spose the correct response is to wonder to what extent someone who would say that to you in a way so clearly open to such misinterpretation was fucking with you and having made a determination on same govern future contact with them accordingly

mmmm, hard disagree on that, i feel like the best course of action is to assume that people mean what they say to you. that's a sufficient basis on which to determine future contact with them, i think!

"we lost gramps last week"

"oh no"

"sokay we found him again"

My dad seriously pulled this one on me in high school and I was pissed off for a week straight:

"I just wanted to be the first to let you know that your uncle passed today.." (knowing that I knew he had been with my uncle just hours earlier)

"WHAT? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED"

"Calm down, the guy in front of us was just really slow"

"We lost dad today...we let go of the curly cord at the mall"

people do often drop statements related to trauma without sounding affected by it, often because the traumatic event is so far removed and they've expended an insane amount of grief to where they sound oddly disaffected when they speak of it. doesn't mean they ARE, just means they're kind of numb to what happened. I often find as well they often don't need consoling because in those cases sometimes it comes up in conversation like any other topic and it doesn't register to them how it will sound to an outside observer, who may want to shower them with consolation.

"I just wanted to be the first to let you know that your uncle passed today.." (knowing that I knew he had been with my uncle just hours earlier)

"WHAT? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED"

"Calm down, the guy in front of us was just really slow"

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0)

these days i find "he got gendered correctly" makes a better punchline

still a shitty thing to do, in that context

When I was in high school the girl who lived across the road got hit by a car after getting off the school bus and not looking for traffic when she came round the back of it to cross the road.

Apparently the local woman who hit her (was entirely an accident of course) went home and said to her son (one of my brother's mates) "oh, I ran into Anna today"
"oh ok how is she doing?" "No I ran into her, with my car. Her leg is broken".

lolol

should be a 'moments when real life resembles a sitcom' thread for these....I would read the fuck out of it

nothing anywhere near as serious, but I was hanging with the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar after a show. we went karaoking after, but my bestie had to leave early, and one of our mutual friends Alf0nso started singing Prince's "Kiss" and going nuts and everybody was eating it up.

I was trying to tell my bestie the day after "man, Alf0nso was doing BACKFLIPS after you left", and he got this hurt look on his face, and said "why?". I didn't get why so I was like "idk, he was drunk", and my friend was like "did I do something to upset him? why was he so happy that I left?" and I was like "NO YOU DUMBFUCK, HE WAS DOING LITERAL BACKFLIPS, LIKE HE DID THREE IN A ROW AND THE WOMEN WERE YELLING".

in detectorists, i think the first episode, toby jones is like "when i met jane... i won the lottery"

"that's sweet"

"no i mean i actually won the lottery. same day. it was mad"

i'm not saying that in terms of judging her. of course you're sympathetic.

Kate you did read the punchline that it turned out to be a dog?

Driving to work this morning, flat bed truck coming the other way. A bit of board about a metre square takes off in the breeze and flies towards me, fortunately managed to stop just before it hit my car.

Oi, the stuff of nightmares, that. Glad you were able to avoid the projectile!

Oh my God, Dan

Once, my dad, my then wife, and I were driving back from lunch on I-83 (we were living around York, PA at the time) - this was maybe around 2004 or 2005 - and a huge car carrier passed us on the left and a tire flew off and bounced off the hood/windshield. Dad admirably kept his minivan in the lane, and there was only a small dent on the hood, but we were SHOOK.

Weirdly it was in pretty much the same spot where a fortnight ago someone decided to overtake into my path. If anything that was scarier.

Xp something similar happened to us about 30 years ago when a bit of scrap metal fell into our path.Fortunately my wife spotted it and braked in good time.Needed a new radiator but was closest to a serious accident I’ve had. Aways wary of other vehicles now.

x-post - This happened to me in upstate NY while I was in college. Four of us drove to Seneca Falls for brunch and on the way back a tire from an 18 wheeler on the other side of the highway came off and flew right at the windshield of the car we were in. We were all deathly hungover but the driver managed to react and swerve. We wound up in a ditch and the tire hit the driver's side windows and doors. The windows shattered and the door was banged up but we walked away with only scratches. If he hadn't of swerved I'm pretty sure we would have all died.

Also pretty sure I encountered a serial killer in Portland, Maine. A wild looking older man who had been hanging out in the smoking area of a bar I was at, looked directly at me and said, "I can't stand your smiling fucking face. I keep thinking I want to stab you right in the middle of it." That was fun.

I still remember years ago I went to a gas station in Milwaukee at like 1 AM and this guy followed us out the door, took out a pack of Juicy Fruit gum, looked me in the eye and said "I'm going above and beyond with this Juicy Fruit". Then he opened his jacket and showed us he had a handgun in there.

glad you were all OK, ENBB. But yikes!

The wee hours of the morning, in public, seem like a time when anything and everything is possible.

in the car on the way to cornwall a few years ago a truck carrying railroad sleepers shed a couple of them right in front of us

we drove straight over one of them and tore off the exhaust but if we'd been a bit closer one of them could have gone straight through the windscreen

did not enjoy that experience tbh

Multiple yikes!

When I was 4 or 5 years old, a neighbor, who was an art professor at the local university, approached my parents about including me in a project about children's art. He wanted me to come over to his house at some point, but my parents had him over instead. I still remember him interviewing me about my art on the couch in our living room and him taking slides of my drawings.

When I was about 13 years old, I was playing with some other kids in the neighborhood near the professor's house, he came out with a kid a little younger than us and asked us if the kid could play with us. The kid looked really quiet and distant like he didn't want to play. We were playing cops and robbers or something and he joined for a few minutes and then he wandered away.

When I was in my later teens after we moved away, we found out the professor went to jail for molesting multiple kids. I think about the look on the kids face quite frequently.

About fifteen years ago or so, I was driving to work on the highway, and a ladder flew off of a truck and almost hit me.

When I was in my later teens after we moved away, we found out the professor went to jail for molesting multiple kids. I think about the look on the kids face quite frequently.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR)

fuuuuck, you have survivors guilt? i have a _fuckton_ of survivors' guilt involving CSA. i, um. it makes people uncomfortable when i get into details.

in fact i should probably nope out of this thread, i know i'm just going to start dumping about the insane amounts of personal trauma i've had if i stick around.

not my story, but several years ago, we were discussing horrifying theater experiences, and a friend of a friend of a friend confided that he performed in several community theatre productions with a serial killer. I don't remember which serial killer it was (not one of the more famous ones), but he uploaded a bio of one of their programs, and the serial killer's bio listed all of his credits and basically mentioned this would be his last show with the troupe as he was moving, and thanking the group for their time together.

apparently, the reason he was moving is that he started to get interest from law enforcement and was trying to discreetly lam it, but he was arrested shortly after.

i have to see if I can find the FB post as it was horrifying. I do remember googling the killer and finding a lot of articles online about him.

tl;dr - some actors are serial killers, just accept it

on One Day That Changed My Life they had a guy on recounting the day his boss arranged to meet him in a cafe. He was in sat the cafe drinking a coffee and his boss excused himself to use the toilet. He described then thinking he'd spilt his coffee because his leg felt wet and noticed that a woman sat at an opposite table was screaming. His boss was stabbing him multiple times with a knife, he had some horrific injuries including his throat getting cut. There was no motive for the attack, his boss had some previous for random violence. I found it terrifying because it makes me think of situations from the past that could have gone that way. Or just sometimes you can be unluckily in the wrong place at wrong time with the the wrong person and that's the point where you end.

"ok ok, no casual Friday this week, geez!"

not quite the severance package he was expecting!

"we're making some cuts"

"On the bright side, I stabbed you before firing you, so you're still covered by insurance."

Please turn in your key card, and your nose

tl;dr - some actors are serial killers, just accept it

― the manwich horror (Neanderthal)

paging john wilkes booth

xp you're fired, i mean dead!

Being a leader means making the hard decisions, such as whether to murder your employees.

some employees are quiet dying

it just happened again, the sneezing and coffee. this time it happened twice within a minute. the first was at the origin point, near the sink, but i still didn't make it in time and the violence of the sneeze shook the full-to-the-brim cup enough to fling just under boiling coffee all over my hand. the rest went in the sink, and cool water was at hand, so the whole thing was over in about 5 seconds from sneeze to clean up. i carried the still very full cup of nearly boiling coffee to the front room, the destination, and had another sneezing event just before i reached the coaster. this time, i was able to put the cup down before the sneeze hit. no cleanup was necessary in any way after the sneeze, which was limited to an internal event