My mom told me this story after being told by my aunt, who was told by my cousin, so I’m sorry if some details are wrong. My cousin is a nurse, and one day a husband and wife come in and see him. The husband tells my cousin that his wife is having trouble seeing, so my cousin gives her a paper and tells her to read it. Instead of saying words or “I can’t see them” she starts saying numbers. My cousin then picks up his radio (or whatever he had) and says “Stroke alert, stroke alert.” The doctors showed up and took care of the lady. The reason he was so proud of himself is because the patient had to go through a few people before him to see him, and he was the only one to even suspect a stroke.

On the way back from visiting friends, I missed my train and with it being a Sunday, the next one to my destination was two hours later. Someone else at the station also missed the train, and his friend very kindly offered to drive me to the destination train station along with him. Thanks to them, I made it on my next train on time and got home safely, at my original time.

(I am at a chain bookstore with two names, the second name being the plural another word for “aristocratic.” It is surprisingly disorganized, in my opinion. I’m seeing a few sections of books that are unlabelled and a few that are in the wrong section, like notebooks are under calendars. I chalk it up to “I’m sure they’re just in the middle of a store reset.” I notice a table with meditation books and the likes, with a sign saying “FREE TOTE WITH THE PURCHASE OF ANY TWO BOOKS.” No fine print is listed except “See a bookseller for details.” I decide to pick up one more book and head to the checkout.)

Bookseller: “Did you find everything alright today?”

Me: “I did, thank you! I did have a question about this book though. On the site, it is $6 less than here. Do you price match in store?” *Gestures to book I specifically came for, about organizing based on joy*

Bookseller: “Unfortunately, I can’t match to our site, but you can purchase it online, which takes about 5 minutes, and pick it up within the hour. I’ll just hold onto this one and give it to you once the order comes through.”

Me: “That sounds great, thank you.” *Clicks Add to Cart on my phone and begins the process as the clerk removes it from my in-store order.* “I do have another question, I saw a sign that said ‘Free Tote with the purchase of any 2 books,’ but it didn’t have any other terms. Will it apply to this transaction?”

Bookseller: *clearly confused* “What sign?”

Me: “The sign on that table over there.” *points to the table.*

Bookseller: “Show me.”

(She walks around the counter and walks with me to the table. I can see a line has started forming but luckily the other cashier is handling it fairly quickly. We see the sign and the bookseller pages over the headset while returning back to her post. I finish the online order.)

Bookseller: ” So, unfortunately, the sign is only for books on that table. Also, we don’t even have the totes, so I couldn’t give you one if I wanted to. This is actually the first I’m hearing of this.”

Me: “Really? It’s almost 8 PM? I’m surprised no one has caught it. So, that is the incorrect signage?”

Bookseller: “It would appear so. I’m sorry about that.”

Me: *tempted to push back but doesn’t want to be -that- customer* “It’s fine, not your fault. But I’d get someone to change that signage soon, as it’s false advertising.”

(We finish the transaction and I get a coupon for a b1g1 free cookie from the cafe. I meander over there to wait for my online order and treat myself. Then I browse a little more while I wait. Once the order comes through 35 minutes later, the bookseller lets me know and we finish up.” When I left, the sign was still up. How can a store not know what signs they have up? You would think that would be a specific job for an opening employee?)

This story happened when I was in senior high school. For the record, back then my high school had a program called “acceleration class” in which we were able to finish high school in two years instead of three, and I was in that program. Therefore I didn’t know a lot of people in “regular class” other than my old classmates before I was moved to acceleration class.

One day, when I was at home, my phone rang. The screen showed the words “Private Number Calling”. I didn’t think much of it since a few of my friends, for some reasons, liked to hide their numbers like that when calling others, so I just picked up and said hello.

That’s when the call turned out for the weird. The caller knew me, but she wouldn’t tell me who she was (I vaguely recognized her voice but couldn’t put a name and face on it). When I asked, she only told me that she’s in regular class, so she wasn’t as smart as me (her words not mine). Then she proceeded to call me a snob for being in acceleration class.

I couldn’t remember the exact conversation between me and her but from what I got, it seemed like this mysterious caller was mad at me for something (for what exactly, I never knew), and thus decided to unleash her fury by calling me a bunch of bad names via phone. Every time I tried to put in a word, or even asked what problem she had in store towards me, she wouldn’t respond other than badmouthing me even more.

Finally, since I couldn’t stand it anymore, I just put down my phone and let her talk. I didn’t respond, I didn’t terminate the call, I just put it down and waited. She eventually realized that I wasn’t responding anymore and yelled at me for being a crybaby (for the record, I didn’t cry, just stayed there and waited). After one more slew of bad names, she finally terminated the call herself.

I never figured out who called me and what was her exact problem with me, as she never called back either. But I often remembered that call, not with anger, but with pity. Because seriously, how pathetic could you be if your way to deal with someone who somehow made you mad was to call her, in private number, to badmouth her? For me, it’s equal to poison pen letters, and only cowards would do such things. While I would admit that I wasn’t a perfect angel and might have accidentally wronged other people in a few occasions, I would also much prefer to have that said person to come to me and explain my mistakes clearly so that I could apologize and maybe fix it. And while I suspected that this mysterious caller simply wished to enact some kind of revenge by trying to draw some tears from me, I was glad to say I didn’t cry, and even after awhile I was able to laugh at her sorry attempt to bring me down!

(I am watching a professional football game at the stadium. The home team was beating the opposing team by a very, very wide margin. A lot of people actually got up to leave well before the game has fully ended, and I even felt a little bit sorry for the opposing team. After a long streak of the home team destroying these guys, the opposing team finally scores a touchdown, which they haven’t done in a while. Unsurprisingly, none of the home team’s fans were devastated by this. One guy even got up to say something.)

Home Team Fan: “YEAH, WHATEVER, YOU CAN HAVE THAT ONE! WE’RE STILL WINNING, ANYWAY!”

(Never a dull moment in sports.)