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Original poster

Things you would never admit to IRL because they'd think you were weird!

296 replies

HiddenBooks · 28/05/2024 17:02

This is a topic that's been going round in my head lately as a thought popped into my mind a few weeks back and is becoming the itch that can't be scratched!

As I was driving home one day, I saw a random lorry with a place name on the side that I didn't recognise, and I thought "I wonder where I'd end up if I just followed that lorry?"

This has now become a regular topic of thought, wondering how long I'd drive for before I gave up following someone and just went home. Or wondering if they might see me driving behind them and realise I'm following them (that would be an awkward convo with the police - "why are you following that vehicle", "Well, officer, I was a bit bored and just wondered where they were going and thought I'd tag along"!)

In my head I've even gone so far as to thinking that if I were single it could be a nice day out! Pack an overnight bag, hop on the motorway and choose a vehicle to follow to see where I end up. Eventually give up and find a hotel for the night (or give myself enough time to drive home again if I couldn't find anything).

So... I realise I am weird for thinking this, but MN is a "safe space" where we can all admit our oddities without being outed, so what are yours?!

OP posts:
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7
chatenoire · 28/05/2024 22:18

I have something called prophantasia. It means that I can project my imagination like an augmented reality filter.

PrincessHoneysuckle · 28/05/2024 22:18

TopBun · 28/05/2024 22:16

@PrincessHoneysuckle Agatha Christie based a plot on that!

Really?! Never read Agatha Christie.

PickledOnionOverdose · 28/05/2024 22:20

I have got a strange fascination for large round-abouts ie ones with grass and trees on. I imagine that I could live on one amongst the trees and no one would notice.

shivbo2014 · 28/05/2024 22:21

ChristmasJumpers · 28/05/2024 21:34

I sometimes have intrusive thoughts. Walking past people at the train station, I'll think "what if they just pushed me on the tracks right now?".
I also think about how much faith we put in drivers not to just randomly decide to run us down as we cross the road.
If I'm in the cinema and someone walks in during the film I'll tense up in case they're going to shoot us all 😧

That's so weird I have the same fear. Every time I'm in the cinema, I imagine someone is going to come in and shoot us all. I don't know why I started thinking that!

Another weird one, I am always thinking about how many grains of sands are on the planet, it just blows my mind!

TopBun · 28/05/2024 22:21

Anyone who knows me would not be at all surprised that I plan for every eventuality. Societal collapse. Bad weather. Zombie apocalypse. The works.

What they don’t know is that I make up stories and plays and books in my head. Worlds of stories. I’ve had them playing in my head for years, and when I want to escape this world I can just hop over into another one.

OutOfTheHouse · 28/05/2024 22:23

If I get up in the night for a wee, which is nearly every night, I always look out of the window, just in case.

DH and I are increasingly convinced that we are the only two real people in the world. We get remembered everywhere we go. Go into a shop/cafe/restaurant once and we are remembered when we go back again. Twice this week I’ve had random people I’ve chatted to on my estate who I have never met before say ‘I know you live nearby…’.

ManilowBarry · 28/05/2024 22:24

Mistralli · 28/05/2024 21:04

As a child I had an imaginative internal world - a sort of fantasy narrative - running in my head a lot of the time. When I was bored, stuck in the car, or just at night before I went to sleep I'd check into that other world and pick up the story.

When I got older, I spent less time there (too many adult worries!) but it all still exists in my imagination, and I can drift off there to check how all the "characters" are doing when I like.

I did write in my tweens and teens, but never managed to finish anything substantial. I'm guessing most authors have a similarly strong internal world that they just don't talk about that much... because well, it is sort of weird! It has been such a non-stop feature of my life for so long, but one I never mention to anyone IRL.

Sounds like maladaptive dreaming.

Coffeesnob11 · 28/05/2024 22:24

I wonder as I walk past houses or people, who is having their best day, who will get proposed to, find out they are pregnant, meet their true love, get a promotion etc and who is having their worst day. I wonder how many people saw me as the last stranger before they died (not many as I don't work in hospital etc). I wonder who is behind the door being beaten and if I knew I could rescue them like I hoped someone would rescue me (this is unrealistic as I too sleep with a blankie and am a wimp!)

EatTheWehrmm · 28/05/2024 22:24

GreenMarigold · 28/05/2024 21:35

When I’m walking in the woods I often ponder on what it would be like if I had somehow gone back in time and when I go round the next corner everything and everyone will be from hundreds of years ago. What skills would I bring to the people I come across? What would they make of me, in modern clothes and wearing glasses? How easily would I understand them? Do I know enough science to advance their way of life? Should I even try to in any case? So many questions.

This is the plot of the show Outlander.

FoxtrotOscarFoxtrotOscar · 28/05/2024 22:25

This is morbid but I think a lot about death and dying.
For example, if I'm in a crowded venue like a concert hall, I'll wonder to myself which person will be next to die.

EmeraldRoulette · 28/05/2024 22:27

GreenMarigold · 28/05/2024 22:08

Another one I like to think about is what would happen if trees suddenly became mobile and turned hostile. How many people would they take out before they were eventually overcome? Imagine a whole forest of trees marching on London.

I love this
but is it rooted (sorry😂) in Macbeth? When I was little, I heard about Birnam Wood marching and my child brain kind of pictured what you describe.

OutOfTheHouse · 28/05/2024 22:27

PickledOnionOverdose · 28/05/2024 22:20

I have got a strange fascination for large round-abouts ie ones with grass and trees on. I imagine that I could live on one amongst the trees and no one would notice.

There was one of those police documentaries where they were looking into a missing person case and they found he had crashed his car into the middle of one of those roundabout a year or so previously.

Wasn’t there another similar case recently too? A car of young people?

UnicornMamma · 28/05/2024 22:28

I've said it a few times in real life and people think I'm odd so I tend to not now but

I don't believe in coincidences. Not at all. I think everyone I meet, talk to I'm clearly meant to listen to or when a slow car is in front of me I think it's clearly slowing me down as I'm meant to be there at a specific time. Stuff like that.

GameOfJones · 28/05/2024 22:29

I wonder how many people that I don't know are displaying photos in their homes where I am in the background.

I have taken lots of photos where other random strangers are also in the shot, at concerts, on holiday etc and I find it strange that I have printed out these photos and they are in an album in my house. Who are these people? What are they doing now? Does anyone have a photo on their mantlepiece where I am forever captured in the background?

GreenMarigold · 28/05/2024 22:30

EmeraldRoulette · 28/05/2024 22:27

I love this
but is it rooted (sorry😂) in Macbeth? When I was little, I heard about Birnam Wood marching and my child brain kind of pictured what you describe.

Edited
Show quote history

Ooh no I hadn’t even thought of that!

ManilowBarry · 28/05/2024 22:32

If I am in a department store or large shop near closing time, I fantasise about quickly hiding so that I'm locked in overnight!

As I walk out I feel a pang of disappointment that I've walked outside!

Richtea67 · 28/05/2024 22:32

Manchestermummax3 · 28/05/2024 21:36

I try to memorise random people when out & about (walking to town, someone on the bus, cash point queue etc)
Their appearance mainly, clothing, height, build. Also if they are walking in a certain way.... suspiciously, or with a limp... anything that makes them different.
Just incase something really bad happens to them or they are a wrong 'un & it's my detailed description to the police that solves the case! 🤣

A family member is a retired police officer, I'm assuming that's why I do it, but they've never once mentioned to do it or anything!

I can't believe someone else does this 😆. I also try to memorise the numberplate on cars i think may be a bit suspicious....my memory is shot to pieces now so it's more difficult.

LordSnot · 28/05/2024 22:33

I have a really deep fear of accidentally killing someone in a way that seems like I did it on purpose. So sometimes I start thinking about where I would hide a body and end up genuinely panicked at not knowing where is covered by CCTV or overlooked etc.

Also, sometimes when I'm driving along I imagine someone from centuries ago is in the car with me and I have to explain all the things they won't have seen before. That one is quite fun.

jackandy · 28/05/2024 22:33

Ihopeithinkiknow · 28/05/2024 21:28

I have got no idea how this came about but at least twice a week me and my 14 year old daughter talk about whether there is a zebra anywhere in the world that has tasted mayonnaise 😂 we get quite annoyed because surely there must have been one somewhere at some point but how would we ever really know 😂 we haven't bothered asking anyone else's opinion because we don't want to look batshit hahaha

This is batshit crazy. But I love it.

jackandy · 28/05/2024 22:34

ChristmasJumpers · 28/05/2024 21:34

I sometimes have intrusive thoughts. Walking past people at the train station, I'll think "what if they just pushed me on the tracks right now?".
I also think about how much faith we put in drivers not to just randomly decide to run us down as we cross the road.
If I'm in the cinema and someone walks in during the film I'll tense up in case they're going to shoot us all 😧

I'm exactly the same and have thought about all of things and more. I don't want them. Like you say, they're intrusive.

Wacadu · 28/05/2024 22:36

I like to imagine faces and then wonder if there's someone in the world who looks like that.

buffyslayer · 28/05/2024 22:37

I panic about dying. Usually 3am in the morning and I'll have thought about it. By the time I'm hyperventilating and having to talk myself down from a panic attack, I've convinced myself I will die, nobody will notice and the cat will starve to death

OutOfTheHouse · 28/05/2024 22:37

GameOfJones · 28/05/2024 22:29

I wonder how many people that I don't know are displaying photos in their homes where I am in the background.

I have taken lots of photos where other random strangers are also in the shot, at concerts, on holiday etc and I find it strange that I have printed out these photos and they are in an album in my house. Who are these people? What are they doing now? Does anyone have a photo on their mantlepiece where I am forever captured in the background?

Wasn’t there a case of someone looking through the family album at their wife’s parents house only to see he was in the background of a posed photo but miles away from where they lived, like the top of the Eiffel Tower?

Theothername · 28/05/2024 22:38

When my dc were small, and totally obsessed with construction vehicles, we followed a concrete mixer for several miles until it got to its building site. It was a very exciting afternoon!

OlympicPimples · 28/05/2024 22:40

I often plan Christmas in my head as I settle to sleep - and have done for as far back as I can remember! All in fine detail, including what we’ll wear, eat, watch on tv etc. I find it comforting I guess. After Christmas and In the early spring, I redecorate the whole house in my head, room by room as I nod off.