Can anyone remember some of the strangest days in your life?

[Raineyrocks]

Here's some of mine that stand out in my mind the most:

I was going for a custody hearing regarding my daughter and I was dressed in a nice blouse and skirt taking SEPTA in Philadelphia.  As I'm waiting for a bus this limo pulls up and the back window slides open and inside there was this really cute guy and he asked me if I knew where a certain restaurant was and I said, "no I don't".   So he asked me if I wanted to go try to find it with him, I said no thanks.  Now this is the same day so now I'm waiting for a train and this lady starting beating up her husband/boyfriend because she thought he was checking me out.  Then I finally get to court and I ran into my brother's driving instructor so we sat together in court, the guy was really cool.  Well this strange guy sits next to me and he asked me if I could keep an eye on his briefcase for a few moments while he stepped out, I said, sure.  So now the guy doesn't come back for a long time and I asked my brother's driving instructor if he thought maybe there was a bomb in the briefcase and we became totally paranoid for what seemed to be forever.  The guy came back, thank goodness!

One day I had to take just one trolley one way to go to my boyfriend's apartment, for some reason I kept getting on the trolley going the opposite way.  This happened about 4 times and I still don't understand it but anyways I'm sitting there like the 3rd time and wondering if maybe I finally had the right trolley and this sign fell off the trolley and hit me in the head.  I started laughing because it just seemed to go with my luck that day and everyone on the trolley laughed with me, not at me.  Believe it or not it was a fun day!

This story is mostly for women that have given birth:

I'm in the labor room all night while they are inducing me with my first kid so my mom walks out to have a smoke.  Well, while she's out my water broke and I thought the baby automatically comes out with water so I bent over to catch the baby and yelled, "Mommy!"  So a nurse came in and calmed me down and told me I had a ways to go yet.  I'll leave out some other funny stuff so this isn't that long. 

Now I'm in the delivery room with my mom and she tells me to hold my breath and count to 100, I had an epidural but I could still feel pain, so I started counting and could only make it to 10.  I yelled at my mother and accused her of trying to kill me.  Then the baby came out and they laid her on my stomach and I started screaming, "she's dead, oh my god, she's dead!"  Well then they wiped her face off, cut the cord and she started crying so I calmed down knowing she was alive.  Then the doctor tells me to keep pushing and I said, "oh no, it's twins, it's twins!"  Well little did I know that what I had to push out was the placenta not another baby!

[Jim Johnson]

Case 1:  Mini skirt, high heels or boots and a smile.

Case 2: Blond

Case 3: Pregnant Blond.   

[Raineyrocks]

Case 1:  Mini skirt, high heels or boots and a smile.

Case 2: Blond

Case 3: Pregnant Blond.   

That was the strangest day for you?  I guess being a blond pregnant man wearing a mini skirt would be pretty strange.

[dalebert]

In the Navy, the day the ship medic confronted me about my sexual orientation. There were a number of days after that that were pretty weird too like the day I was processed out of the Navy. There was one day where one of my shipmates got drunk and was confronting me in a somewhat violent manner about what happened to cause me to get processed out. He wanted out too and I think he also was hitting on me in his bizarre way. Very, very strange.

[Raineyrocks]

In the Navy, the day the ship medic confronted me about my sexual orientation. There were a number of days after that that were pretty weird too like the day I was processed out of the Navy. There was one day where one of my shipmates got drunk and was confronting me in a somewhat violent manner about what happened to cause me to get processed out. He wanted out too and I think he also was hitting on me in his bizarre way. Very, very strange.

That does sound strange but if he was behaving violently how could that be considered hitting on you and how would it get him out?  I'm guessing if you start fights in the Navy they kick you out?

I think that is so stupid that they deny people that want to go into the military because of their sexual orientation.  How did you feel after all that happened?  If you don't want to answer that's fine, I was just wondering how you felt though.

[kola]

being in jail.

thats as strange as it gets.

its even stranger nowadays with orifice checks, surgical masked goons and dehumilation tactics not to mention being treated like a rabid animal.

innocent before guilty, my ass.

Kola

[Raineyrocks]

being in jail.

thats as strange as it gets.

its even stranger nowadays with orifice checks, surgical masked goons and dehumilation tactics not to mention being treated like a rabid animal.

innocent before guilty, my ass.

Kola

I could only imagine and I hope it stays that way for me!

[ancapagency]

Oh boy--a chance to tell war stories!

Incidentally, you know the difference between a war story and a fairy tale?

A Fairy Tale starts out: "Once upon a time..."

A War Story starts out:  "No shit, this really happened!"



So, No Shit, This Really Happened!...

In the dark days of about 1991 (I think it was), I was assigned to Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment (OPFOR) in Hohenfels, Germany...

We spent almost all our time out in the field on ops and doing stupid shit in the field when we weren't on an op--because God Forbid we actually get out of the field when there's not an op and actually get some hot chow, an occasional shower, pull some maintenance, and actually get some sleep and relaxation, from time to time.

So anyway, out of the blue, after about 3 solid months of back to back ops, the Regimental Commander decrees an unprecedented 4 day weekend.

So, 2 days into the 3 day drunk...

We were (for whatever reason) staying on post, in the barracks for our binge.  Now, it was the practice sometimes for the folks pulling Regimental Staff Duty (probably because they were REMF Assholes who were irritated that the real soldiers were actually out of the field and had time off) during the occasional "day off" to roam the halls of the barracks looking for soldiers to do some stupid detail or another--anything to fuck with us when we were off.

So we're in someone's room on the 2nd floor of the Charlie Company Barracks (if I remember correctly).  The room is full of drunk soldiers--like I said, 2 days into the 3 day drunk.  And there's a knock at the door.  It's some candy-ass 2nd LT from Regiment, who proceeds to bitch everyone out, tells us we're all a disgrace, and that he's gonna pull us all on duty over at Regimental HQ, and when we sober up, he's gonna put us all on every shit detail in the Regiment.

So there's these two guys from Delta Company that I always called "The Bookends."  Shelton, a big (probably 6' 8") white guy from Georgia, and Vanheynegan, a big (6' 5" or so) black guy from Louisiana.  These guys were buddies, and would play tricks on folks in the company a lot.  They were both nice guys, but when they drank, their humor would get a bit of a cruel edge.  Shelton was especially bad, at times, when he'd drink.

So this LT is talking all this shit, and Van reaches over and grabs the LT, and tosses him to Shelton.  And they start playing catch with him!  I once saw Shelton pick a guy up one handed by his throat, and throw him across the hall in such a way that there was a large dent in the stucco wall on the other side of the hall.  But that's another story...

So anyway, eventually Shelton reaches over and scoops everything out of a wall locker, and Van tosses the LT in the wall locker.  Shelton closes it, and the two of them pick up the wall locker, and toss it out the 2nd story window!

I was certain, at that point, that we were all gonna be sent to Leavenworth.  So all of us run downstairs and outside, and open the locker.  The LT is a little dazed, but he's ok.  We start helping him out of the locker, and down come The Bookends.  They sort of gently push everyone aside, gently push the LT back down into the locker, and close it again.

Then they picked up the locker, and carried it up to the 3rd floor--where they throw it out again!

The LT was actually ok (for the most part--scuffed up a bit, but nothing serious broken).  But the really odd part is that no one ever said anything about it--we never heard anything about the incident from the CO or anything.  The LT did transfer out or something pretty soon after, but that was it.  I kept expecting the hammer to fall on that one, but it never did.

That's probably my favorite story from Hohenfels--even better than the time the video store messed up, and the video case was the movie we wanted to watch, but the tape was wrong--so a room full of drunk GIs ended up watching The Little Mermaid, and laying bets on when those shells were going to fall off...but I digress.

[dalebert]

Incidentally, you know the difference between a war story and a fairy tale?

A Fairy Tale starts out: "Once upon a time..."

A War Story starts out:  "No shit, this really happened!"

LMAO! I'll have to remember that one.

[dalebert]

That does sound strange but if he was behaving violently how could that be considered hitting on you and how would it get him out?  I'm guessing if you start fights in the Navy they kick you out?

Well, at this point I guess the rumors had been flying about my sexual orientation and how they were processing me out for it. So this guy is hanging out with my roommate when I come back to the barracks and they're drinking tequila. He keeps trying to get me to drink with them and he's REALLY persistent about it, so I finally agree to have ONE shot and one shot only but only if he promises to quit bugging me to drink any more. It starts off all buddy-buddy and we're having a good time and chatting and then he start grilling me about why I'm being processed out. Well I haven't told anyone at this point. I have no idea how everyone will react. I know some guys seem pretty cool and there are some, prolly more the quiet ones, who may not be very cool at all about it and could even get violent.

So this guy, kinda a naturally big guy, starts yelling at me to tell him why I'm being processed out and I keep saying I don't want to talk about it or it doesn't matter or whatever. Finally he gets up and has me literally backed into a corner, pressed against me, and he's yelling an inch or two from my face and he just asks me flat out "Did you tell them you were gay?" and I don't say anything and he just keeps yelling it. And I finally say "yes". All of a sudden he calms down like instantly and he smiles. And I'm thinking, "Oh good, it's over." and he really doesn't seem like he's going to bother me any more. But then he starts asking "Is it true?" and once again it escalates until he's yelling. Now understand, I don't want to answer this. If I say "no" then it gets out that I'm lying to get out of the Navy. If I say "yes", then all the potentially violent homophobes know that I'm not just saying it to get out of the Navy. I'd rather those guys wonder if I'm lying. I absolutely DO NOT WANT TO ANSWER. Also, at this point, I'm extremely uncomfortable but I just know deep down that this guy has no intention to hit me or anything. He's just trying to intimidate me into answering. So finally my roommate, who's been trying to pull him off me this whole time ramps up his efforts and convinces him to stop. My roommate is literally grabbing him and trying to pull him away. Also, I think he's kind of just decided he knows from the look on my face or something. And he said something like he was going to tell them he was gay to get out.

The thing is, it kind of seemed like this guy, up until the shouting, was being a whole lot friendlier than he ever was before with me. He was usually really quiet and kept to himself. It was like knowing I was gay changed something about his attitude toward me. Also, it was just he was drunk and like REALLY into my personal space bubble and even though he was trying to act violent, ultimately I could tell it was just an act, the way he went from being super friendly and trying to get me drunk to  The whole thing left me thinking he was gay. Left me really shaken too.

I think that is so stupid that they deny people that want to go into the military because of their sexual orientation.  How did you feel after all that happened?  If you don't want to answer that's fine, I was just wondering how you felt though.

I had nightmares about some of those stressful times in the Navy for a few years after. It felt like I was wearing a scarlet letter. Whenever the subject of my service came up, I would get a little panic attack and I never knew good answers. They would inevitably ask how long I served and 2 years is really short so they would always ask why and I was always trying to come up with a good lie and at the same time not being at all comfortable with lying. I was always beating myself up over whether I kind of brought it on myself because I hated being in the Navy and just wanted out. Even though they came to me and asked, they asked in a really cryptic way and I always wondered if I could have played it down or come up with some way to switch boats and avoid the controversy. The boat medic brought me to his office and said "If there's something that's bothering you, you need to tell us so we can help you, especially if it's something that might get you off the boat or out of the Navy." I remember it practically word for word like it was yesterday. From that moment until I was finally processed out, I had thoughts of my entire life being ruined by a less than honorable discharge. I was fortunate to hardly ever bump into my shipmates after that. I was treated like a mental patient and couldn't leave the boat that night. I slept in the officer's quarters. Fear of suicide I think. I was off the boat the very next day and given keep-busy duties on the base for a little while until given a watch duty in one bldg that was only 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. That was pretty cushy compared to my usual 12-16 hour days about 6 days a week. I'd just stand there for 6 hours stewing over what was going to happen to me. When my papers finally came, the yeoman was reading from them and I kept asking "Is it honorable? Is it honorable?!!" but he wouldn't say. It's like he was going to read from the first page and go through it word for word and it was a stack of papers to leave me on edge. Finally there was a page where I saw the word "honorable" and I pointed at it and said "It's honorable, right?!" and he still wouldn't say. I was practically yelling at him at this point. I probably would have started crying at that point if I hadn't been so pissed off at the guy for fucking with me.

So I was processed out and told to go to a certain bldg and turn in all my uniforms which was weird because I paid for them and owned them. It was like they didn't want my stain on the military. So whatever. When I got there I realized it wasn't really documented and I was already out so they couldn't do much so I kept a set of dress blues and a set of dress whites. I used those later for costumes. One was for a protest at Cracker Barrel for having a policy of firing all gay people and the other I used for a funny Halloween costume.

The nightmares of being back in the Navy continued for a few years but gradually became less and less severe. After a while, they actually became pleasant, like I was back in the Navy, sometimes going through boot camp again, only it was better like I knew better how to handle everything. And now it's been quite a long time since I had any dreams of being back in the Navy. Weird.

[Raineyrocks]

Oh boy--a chance to tell war stories!

Incidentally, you know the difference between a war story and a fairy tale?

A Fairy Tale starts out: "Once upon a time..."

A War Story starts out:  "No shit, this really happened!"



So, No Shit, This Really Happened!...

In the dark days of about 1991 (I think it was), I was assigned to Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment (OPFOR) in Hohenfels, Germany...

We spent almost all our time out in the field on ops and doing stupid shit in the field when we weren't on an op--because God Forbid we actually get out of the field when there's not an op and actually get some hot chow, an occasional shower, pull some maintenance, and actually get some sleep and relaxation, from time to time.

So anyway, out of the blue, after about 3 solid months of back to back ops, the Regimental Commander decrees an unprecedented 4 day weekend.

So, 2 days into the 3 day drunk...

We were (for whatever reason) staying on post, in the barracks for our binge.  Now, it was the practice sometimes for the folks pulling Regimental Staff Duty (probably because they were REMF Assholes who were irritated that the real soldiers were actually out of the field and had time off) during the occasional "day off" to roam the halls of the barracks looking for soldiers to do some stupid detail or another--anything to fuck with us when we were off.

So we're in someone's room on the 2nd floor of the Charlie Company Barracks (if I remember correctly).  The room is full of drunk soldiers--like I said, 2 days into the 3 day drunk.  And there's a knock at the door.  It's some candy-ass 2nd LT from Regiment, who proceeds to bitch everyone out, tells us we're all a disgrace, and that he's gonna pull us all on duty over at Regimental HQ, and when we sober up, he's gonna put us all on every shit detail in the Regiment.

So there's these two guys from Delta Company that I always called "The Bookends."  Shelton, a big (probably 6' 8") white guy from Georgia, and Vanheynegan, a big (6' 5" or so) black guy from Louisiana.  These guys were buddies, and would play tricks on folks in the company a lot.  They were both nice guys, but when they drank, their humor would get a bit of a cruel edge.  Shelton was especially bad, at times, when he'd drink.

So this LT is talking all this shit, and Van reaches over and grabs the LT, and tosses him to Shelton.  And they start playing catch with him!  I once saw Shelton pick a guy up one handed by his throat, and throw him across the hall in such a way that there was a large dent in the stucco wall on the other side of the hall.  But that's another story...

So anyway, eventually Shelton reaches over and scoops everything out of a wall locker, and Van tosses the LT in the wall locker.  Shelton closes it, and the two of them pick up the wall locker, and toss it out the 2nd story window!

I was certain, at that point, that we were all gonna be sent to Leavenworth.  So all of us run downstairs and outside, and open the locker.  The LT is a little dazed, but he's ok.  We start helping him out of the locker, and down come The Bookends.  They sort of gently push everyone aside, gently push the LT back down into the locker, and close it again.

Then they picked up the locker, and carried it up to the 3rd floor--where they throw it out again!

The LT was actually ok (for the most part--scuffed up a bit, but nothing serious broken).  But the really odd part is that no one ever said anything about it--we never heard anything about the incident from the CO or anything.  The LT did transfer out or something pretty soon after, but that was it.  I kept expecting the hammer to fall on that one, but it never did.

That's probably my favorite story from Hohenfels--even better than the time the video store messed up, and the video case was the movie we wanted to watch, but the tape was wrong--so a room full of drunk GIs ended up watching The Little Mermaid, and laying bets on when those shells were going to fall off...but I digress.

Whoa!  Talk about Full Metal Jacket, if you watched it remember when that big bald guy shot the Officer in Command when he was in the bathroom?  I'm so shocked nothing ever came of the incident you wrote about, I could just imagine you guys saying, "holy shit, we're screwed!"   Well that was a strange day that's for sure!

[Raineyrocks]

That does sound strange but if he was behaving violently how could that be considered hitting on you and how would it get him out?  I'm guessing if you start fights in the Navy they kick you out?

Well, at this point I guess the rumors had been flying about my sexual orientation and how they were processing me out for it. So this guy is hanging out with my roommate when I come back to the barracks and they're drinking tequila. He keeps trying to get me to drink with them and he's REALLY persistent about it, so I finally agree to have ONE shot and one shot only but only if he promises to quit bugging me to drink any more. It starts off all buddy-buddy and we're having a good time and chatting and then he start grilling me about why I'm being processed out. Well I haven't told anyone at this point. I have no idea how everyone will react. I know some guys seem pretty cool and there are some, prolly more the quiet ones, who may not be very cool at all about it and could even get violent.

So this guy, kinda a naturally big guy, starts yelling at me to tell him why I'm being processed out and I keep saying I don't want to talk about it or it doesn't matter or whatever. Finally he gets up and has me literally backed into a corner, pressed against me, and he's yelling an inch or two from my face and he just asks me flat out "Did you tell them you were gay?" and I don't say anything and he just keeps yelling it. And I finally say "yes". All of a sudden he calms down like instantly and he smiles. And I'm thinking, "Oh good, it's over." and he really doesn't seem like he's going to bother me any more. But then he starts asking "Is it true?" and once again it escalates until he's yelling. Now understand, I don't want to answer this. If I say "no" then it gets out that I'm lying to get out of the Navy. If I say "yes", then all the potentially violent homophobes know that I'm not just saying it to get out of the Navy. I'd rather those guys wonder if I'm lying. I absolutely DO NOT WANT TO ANSWER. Also, at this point, I'm extremely uncomfortable but I just know deep down that this guy has no intention to hit me or anything. He's just trying to intimidate me into answering. So finally my roommate, who's been trying to pull him off me this whole time ramps up his efforts and convinces him to stop. My roommate is literally grabbing him and trying to pull him away. Also, I think he's kind of just decided he knows from the look on my face or something. And he said something like he was going to tell them he was gay to get out.

The thing is, it kind of seemed like this guy, up until the shouting, was being a whole lot friendlier than he ever was before with me. He was usually really quiet and kept to himself. It was like knowing I was gay changed something about his attitude toward me. Also, it was just he was drunk and like REALLY into my personal space bubble and even though he was trying to act violent, ultimately I could tell it was just an act, the way he went from being super friendly and trying to get me drunk to  The whole thing left me thinking he was gay. Left me really shaken too.

I decided to split your paragraphs into 2 posts because of the length so now you get 2 posts from me, aren't you so lucky!

From how your describing everything I see what you mean now, it seems like he had a little/lot of denial going on with himself.  That must've been a pretty weird experience for you.  It seems like, you know that saying about how people tend to call other people the names that they reflect themselves not the person they are calling the names?  I'm just glad everything turned out alright for you and it didn't escalate into a violent situation, your other room mate seemed pretty cool.

Thanks for explaining it too!

[Raineyrocks]

Quote
I think that is so stupid that they deny people that want to go into the military because of their sexual orientation.  How did you feel after all that happened?  If you don't want to answer that's fine, I was just wondering how you felt though. Smiley

I had nightmares about some of those stressful times in the Navy for a few years after. It felt like I was wearing a scarlet letter. Whenever the subject of my service came up, I would get a little panic attack and I never knew good answers. They would inevitably ask how long I served and 2 years is really short so they would always ask why and I was always trying to come up with a good lie and at the same time not being at all comfortable with lying. I was always beating myself up over whether I kind of brought it on myself because I hated being in the Navy and just wanted out. Even though they came to me and asked, they asked in a really cryptic way and I always wondered if I could have played it down or come up with some way to switch boats and avoid the controversy. The boat medic brought me to his office and said "If there's something that's bothering you, you need to tell us so we can help you, especially if it's something that might get you off the boat or out of the Navy." I remember it practically word for word like it was yesterday. From that moment until I was finally processed out, I had thoughts of my entire life being ruined by a less than honorable discharge. I was fortunate to hardly ever bump into my shipmates after that. I was treated like a mental patient and couldn't leave the boat that night. I slept in the officer's quarters. Fear of suicide I think. I was off the boat the very next day and given keep-busy duties on the base for a little while until given a watch duty in one bldg that was only 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. That was pretty cushy compared to my usual 12-16 hour days about 6 days a week. I'd just stand there for 6 hours stewing over what was going to happen to me. When my papers finally came, the yeoman was reading from them and I kept asking "Is it honorable? Is it honorable?!!" but he wouldn't say. It's like he was going to read from the first page and go through it word for word and it was a stack of papers to leave me on edge. Finally there was a page where I saw the word "honorable" and I pointed at it and said "It's honorable, right?!" and he still wouldn't say. I was practically yelling at him at this point. I probably would have started crying at that point if I hadn't been so pissed off at the guy for fucking with me.

So I was processed out and told to go to a certain bldg and turn in all my uniforms which was weird because I paid for them and owned them. It was like they didn't want my stain on the military. So whatever. When I got there I realized it wasn't really documented and I was already out so they couldn't do much so I kept a set of dress blues and a set of dress whites. I used those later for costumes. One was for a protest at Cracker Barrel for having a policy of firing all gay people and the other I used for a funny Halloween costume.

The nightmares of being back in the Navy continued for a few years but gradually became less and less severe. After a while, they actually became pleasant, like I was back in the Navy, sometimes going through boot camp again, only it was better like I knew better how to handle everything. And now it's been quite a long time since I had any dreams of being back in the Navy. Weird.

Wow, I'm glad you got to keep 2 uniforms!  So then your were honorably discharged, right?  Wasn't the military thinking of changing their minds about the sexual orientation rules?  I think I remember it was a big thing a few years ago and then it just died down into nothing.  It's sad that people have to be so judgmental and expect everyone to be like them, I wonder why that is.

I know someone that is very close to me and is gay and it took her years to tell everyone and she was so happy after she did.  We even make straight/gay jokes together and have a blast letting each be each other.

[porcupine kate]

Being held upside down by my ankles over the edge of a second story deck.  I was at a party and a friend of my thought it would be funny.  He is a big guy 6'7" and a solid wall.  He picked me up turned me side ways then flipped me around and dangled me over over the edge by my ankles. It was completely effortless for him to do this.  We were both sober when this happened.

Getting the call at work that I needed to come home because my mother was getting arrested for possession of marijuana in a school zone.  I was sixteen at the time.  I go home and the cops are there and this punk of a junior narc is there and he starts hitting on my friend Lauren who happen to be at he house.  She goes crazy yelling and screaming at this guy because he was at her house when her mother got busted for possession and distribution of a bunch of drugs.  Fun times.

[Puke]

Yes.