I was in charge of the cheese section at a major gourmet grocery store that you know the name of. When I say in charge, it was more the product curation, ordering and in-store "marketing" than the scheduling, conflict management and the more tedious stuff. But I'd do things like set the demo program throughout the store, "design" the cheese case and be the person that was called over as the "expert" when folks with too much money and too little knowledge wanted to feel like they knew what they were talking about.

There was a pleasant, young woman who was a regular customer, none of the negatives of above, but definitely seemed to have enough money to buy anything and everything I'd recommend without even a feigned concern or a cursory glance at the prices. I didn't know it myself, but I was eventually told by others that woman was Mandy Moore (a very well known pop star and actress, but in maybe a slower point in her career).

I guess one day, my day off, someone noticed her waiting in the section, offered to help her and she politely refused and stayed where she was. They'd send other employees after a bit and she'd again politely decline help, but just stayed in the section "like she was waiting for something" and just line of half-browsing for a noticeably longer time. Eventually she went back up to the original person that tried to help her and asked if a specific employee was available to help her (with her giving a more generous description of me, as I'm told). She was told I wasn't working that day and I guess she left without buying anything from the section.

So maybe that was a day that could have lead to a much different life had I been working? I resigned from the store pretty soon after as it was actually my 2nd job and I couldn't sustain the hours of both anymore. But the funniest part is that other employee that Ms. Moore was asking about me would eventually become my wife years later :)

I unwillingly rode a giant tortoise.

Ah c'mon now. You can't drop a zinger like that without details and / or pictures.

I delivered my own child. Wife went for a snooze and somehow woke up deep in labour. No way we were going to make the hospital. Young and very nervous sounding lad talked me through it on the phone. I was glad it wasn't my first time experiencing the birthing process because that took a lot of stress out of it.

There were no complications and it all went smoothly. She's 16 now.

At the time I was mod of a parenting community that nearly lost it's shit hahaha.

The fire brigade arrived about two minutes after the baby.

On the very same day my son's best friend's parents had to deliver their baby on the side of the road because they didn't make the hospital!

This is awesome.

It very nearly happened to me as well with our first. My wife went into labor around 1am and she felt things were going quickly. Triage just told her to take a bath and take it easy as it could be hours. She woke me up around 4am and said we need to go. We get in the car and make it to the hospital. The triage nurse was really dismissive of my wife... That is until she examined her... My wife was fully dilated and effaced. Our little boy was born 45 minutes later. He is 18 and in college now.

we need more details!

That's crazy! I have heard similar stories on first where staff are dismissive though. First ones are usually slower so they build this silly assumption. My poor niece was over 24 hours. Nightmare!

We had two more after that and both times they brought her in early to induce so she wouldn't have a repeat "unscheduled home delivery" haha.

Similar here. Our second was scheduled for induction and he decided to come 2 weeks earlier than that!

Side story on the birth of our first. My wife's OB/Gyn actually made it to the delivery. When she entered my wife asked her if she could have an epidural... The OB/Gyn replied; "You're going to have a baby, not an epidural." My wife was too far along and getting an epidural might have set things back. So yeah, she delivered our first old school.

Our second there was enough time for an epidural, but the anesthesiologist had a heck of time getting the needle in. He shook his head and said if it doesn't go in this time I need to stop... Fortunately he was able to hit the right spot, so her second delivery was a lot easier.

I would think it's the time I was rammed by a viking ship, but it turns out it's actually the time I was almost killed by a will-o-the-wisp.

Technically, this has less to do with me and more to do with my mother.

When my mother was pregnant with me, she didn't even know she was pregnant until 7 months into the pregnancy.

I know what you're probably thinking: "How did my mom not realize she was pregnant for that long?", because I wondered this too.

But apparently, according to my mom, I was not growing in her stomach, I somehow moved and was laying flat in her back, so she really didn't notice any significant weight gain.

So when she scheduled a visit to the doctor, because she was feeling oddly sick, the doctor had her do an X-ray/sonogram, and the nurse came in with the results and said to my mom: "We figured out the issue; Congratulations, you're pregnant with twins!"

"What?? TWINS‽" My mother exclaimed in confusion, "No, that can't be right. I can't take care of twins right now!"

And the nurse said "but ma'am, the results show two babies, look!" And my mom told me sure enough, there were two babies in the pictures.

This was in December 2003. In February 2004, I was born.

Just me though. My twin didn't make it: the womb absorbed them. Apparently the technical term for that is Vanishing Twin Syndrome.

But hey, it worked out perfectly: my mom told the doctors when she was about to give birth "I am only leaving out of here with one baby!" and she got her wish.