How about obs that *didn't* happen?

[gryffin]

(Mods: I'm not posting this in the Obs section as there's no actual obs, but please move it if you think it should go there!)

Has it ever happened to you that you know that an awesome sneezy event of some sort happened, but you weren't there to see/hear it, and are so upset about missing it? It's happened at least three times to me -

1. I was still at high school then, but this happened on a study holiday over the summer. Let's call him S., distinctly comely as Dr Daly said. Random bit of dialogue overheard: "What the hell were you thinking, blowing feathers into my nose? It's not a joke, I'm allergic to them." Now I'm not positively sure that a tremendous sneezing fit resulted from his cute allergic nose being stuffed with feathers, but I couldn't seem to shake the idea off my mind...

2. Again high school, final year this time. G., probably the most good-looking guy in the class. (Seen him sneeze a fair few times, but never quite enough... Almost always stifled into his cupped hands, hardly a sound save a quiet spoken chh at the end. But I'm digressing.) He's talking about himself and A., a good friend of his and a very distant acquaintance of mind, not to mention a pair of legs to die for (then). I can't remember where we'd started from, but at one point the discussions turned to "that time when we sniffed my dad's tobacco. We sneezed for half an hour."

3. More recent times, a little less than two years ago. C., very good friend of mine (actually, big crush of mine ) and housemate at that time. Plus 'seasonal' (i.e. spring, summer, and autumn) allergies, which as you might suppose I thoroughly enjoyed from the first ETTCHU! that I heard from my room in the morning to the last that came out in the night. We were together at a college party this one evening, there was plenty to drink including, hear hear, champagne; he had to leave early to do a night shift in the library. After an hour or so I popped into the library to say hi on my way home, and all seemed ok. Save that, a few days later, the conversation fell upon the topic of allergies, which apparently alcoholic beverages make worse: "after the party the other night I couldn't stop sneezing!"

This is it on my side... Am I the only one who's experienced this?

(Apologies for the disconnected style and the probable spelling/grammar/syntax mistakes, it's midnight and I've had an intense day )

[Sneesee]

These things happen to me ALL THE TIME! I can probably share a couple of stories, but it seems like I'm always missing out on really awesome obs.

1. There was the one time when one of my favorite people to work with transfered stores, and he would tell me stories of his sneezes there, and whoile he was out on a date with his girlfriend. Ooh, and there was this one time when he still worked with me, and we had a missing child in the store, and we were all supposed to man the doors, and he was the one that we asked to make the announcement. But when I went back into the phone center to see why he wasn't making the damn page, he said sheepishly, "I was about to page, but then I started sneezing." And of course I asked, "And why did you stop?" Ha ha ha.

2. Another guy I work with was telling me how one night, when I wasn't working, he was sneezing up a storm. In fact, he said he did it ten times in a row at one point, and wondered why the hell I wasn't there. I wonder, too...

3. And there was this one time, after having lunch with someone, I was told that after he got into his car, he sneezed. Really? Man, where was that sneeze during lunch? (I'm totally kidding about being mad on this one, but that did really just happen!)

So yeah, it happens a lot. I guess it's good to hear about it, or to listen to people talk about it, but that sure as heck doesn't make up for being there, does it?

[TheCakeIsAlive]

I got an e-mail from a new acquaintance. He was at a meeting where I wanted to be but had another engagement and e-mailed in response to my asking "How are you?" something like "I've just had a never-ending sneezing fit but otherwise okay" Cue me going and "argh why wasn't I there?"

[atchoum]

A wonderful thread, wherever it should be!

One frustrating "near-observation" comes to mind, and this is even one step removed from the three wonderful ones above, as it was an overheard conversation.

Two work colleagues were chatting about computer problems and one of them was telling the other about an IT man she had in to rejig her computer. I wasn't really paying attention until she mentioned that she thought the IT man had the flu because he was sneezing all the time. It turned out that he was allergic to her cats. And she was commenting that it must be a great handicap to have to go into people's flats (and Parisians love keeping cats!) if you are allergic to them. But I must say that the image of having an IT man trying desperately to work on my computer, sneezing all the time, has been engraved on my mind ever since.

[KatNY]

I can think of two times right now:

1. I was talking to my girlfriend (who knows about the fetish) and she mentioned going to a party last night. Now, cigarette smoke occasionally irritates her nose, and everyone at the party was smoking. She says she sneezed at least 20 times. God, she loves torturing me...

2. I talked to this cute girl on facebook chat, when she wrote 'wait a sec'. She came back around a minute later and said, 'woo, I've just sneezed around ten times!'