00:00:00
This is exactly right. Isn't some far off concept? It's already here. Next starts now.
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Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Goodbye. Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile.
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See full terms at MintMobile.com. You're locked into a lot of things you can't change.
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But you can unlock a better way. Unlock the savings at Boost Mobile and save up to $600 a year.
00:01:19
Switch to the $25 a month unlimited wireless plan. No contracts, no price hikes, and you keep your phone.
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Stop being locked into their games. Unlock the savings at boostmobile.com slash unlock.
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Based on average annual single line of payment of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile customers,
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compared to 12 months on the Boost Mobile Unlimited Wireless plan as of January 2026.
00:01:35
For full offer details, visit boostmobile.com. Hey, everybody. Before we start the episode today, we want to take a moment to address the June 24th,
00:01:43
2022 Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe versus Wade. This decision stripped away the right to have a safe and legal abortion.
00:01:53
Everyone should have the freedom to decide what's best for themselves and for their families,
00:01:56
including when it comes to ending a pregnancy. This decision has dire consequences for individual health and safety
00:02:03
and could have harsh repercussions for other landmark decisions. Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion,
00:02:11
threatens the health and independence of all Americans. Learn more by visiting choice.crd.co.
00:02:18
That's choice.crd.co. And if you're able to support others, please consider donating to abortion funds.
00:02:26
And thank you to Ariel Nisenblatt, the founder of Earbuds Podcast Collective, for starting
00:02:30
this movement of podcasters making this announcement at the top of their podcasts
00:02:35
in a time where people really are looking for help, looking for unity, looking to know what to do.
00:02:42
This is an amazing movement to show how many there are of us and how important coming together
00:02:48
and unifying over this very important topic is. We encourage you to speak up, take care, and spread the word.
00:03:13
Hello, and welcome to My Favorite Murder. This is the mini-sode. It's mini. We read you your stories.
00:03:21
You want to go first? Sure. Cool. Let's just get right into it. Hey, let's do it.
00:03:26
No time like the present. That's right. No time like the present for a sinkhole story.
00:03:31
Hey. The subject line of this email is the sinkhole incident of 2003. Okay. Long-time listener, like obsessive slash have no life slash I've listened to every episode
00:03:43
six times. Hey. Like you. We like you. A full salute to you and first-time caller.
00:03:52
I've had several stories I've wanted to share with you both over the years and finally decided on a quote-unquote Karen classic, the sinkhole incident of 2003.
00:04:01
Child of divorce here, living mainly with my father for the better part of two years in a suburban town in Montreal, Canada, where supervision was close to non-existent.
00:04:11
We kids had free range, running wild, and causing havoc. In parentheses, it was great.
00:04:16
My best friend Jess and I were dirty, dirty kids. We were eight years old and we loved to muck shit up.
00:04:22
We lived on a cute little street, white picket fence looking, and our address was 911.
00:04:28
Murderito from the get-go, am I right? There's so many parentheticals in this email that I'm just going to stop saying them.
00:04:34
There was a crescent on our street, little island-like thing in the middle of the road,
00:04:39
mainly covered in grass with a fire hydrant smack in the middle. One day we noticed the crescent was considerably muddy compared to other days.
00:04:46
We thought nothing of it and carried on with our game of picking sticks and chasing squirrels further down the road.
00:04:52
Canada is riveting, isn't it? A little while later, we heard screams coming from the crescent.
00:04:57
We looked over to see our neighbor, Lauren, standing in the middle of the muddy crescent screaming for help.
00:05:03
We ran toward her, ignoring the fact that she was violently shaking her hands in a no-don't-come-this-way fashion.
00:05:11
As Jess and I ran onto the crescent and got closer to Lauren, we immediately started sinking fast.
00:05:18
First person sinkhole. Mud filled our little billy boots and we instantly started sinking, each stride looking more and more like a slow motion scene from a poorly directed action film.
00:05:31
Suddenly we were stuck. The mud was too thick and gooey for our thin eight-year-old legs.
00:05:36
Jess managed to crouch down and dig for her boot, pulling it off and using it as a shovel
00:05:41
to dig her other leg out. As an eight-year-old, the genius engineering. She then proceeded to get Lauren out,
00:05:48
huffing and puffing, pulling her out by her armpits. All the while I was sinking, sinking fast.
00:05:54
I was up to my waist in mud when I started dramatically crying and screaming for help There was nothing Jess and Lauren could do They were safe on the pavement by this time and didn want to reemerge themselves
00:06:05
in the sinkhole of mud. I started scream crying for my dad, who was about 20 yards away at our
00:06:11
house. In parentheses, it says the length of a bowling alley. I Googled it. Trying to keep this
00:06:16
as short as I can, but it's important to add in that my dad, who allowed us free range,
00:06:21
also expected us to get ourselves out of every sticky situation we got ourselves into.
00:06:25
He also smokes a lot of pot and it's just your typical happy-go-lucky, life-is-a-hunky-dory type of fella.
00:06:32
He heard my screams and being the good old dad that he is, came over, saw me now ribbed deep in mud,
00:06:38
laughed and turned around and walked back home. No. Okay, there's a limit to getting yourself out of problems.
00:06:47
And I think that's when it hits your armpits. Yeah, when mud is coming close to your face and engulfing it.
00:06:53
I obviously started crying even harder now. I accepted my fate, thinking I was going to die.
00:06:58
My first thought, who would feed my Tamagotchis? A few seconds later, my dad came back with a shovel.
00:07:04
He stood at the edge of the crescent and threw it to me while saying, dig yourself out.
00:07:09
Right. This sent myself and my best friend Jess into hysterical tears. And my dad, of course, got a real chuckle out of it.
00:07:15
I tried to dig, covered in tears and snot. And then finally, he and three other dads on the block who put their beers down for five minutes wrangled me out of the mud as I sobbed.
00:07:24
Turns out the pipes from the fire hydrant in the crescent had burst, causing it to turn into a sinkhole-esque mud lake, thus leading to us idiot kids sinking.
00:07:35
Jess's other boot is still stuck beneath the now dry crescent. Whoa. And we constantly laugh about how my dad joked about leaving me for dead.
00:07:42
so stay sexy and if you find a muddy sinkhole make sure your dad isn't three beers in a joint
00:07:47
deep before calling for help bye Cassidy oh Cassidy that's a good one yeah sinkhole first
00:07:56
person and a little quick sandy like thrown in for good measure which is fun the greatest there's a
00:08:03
really good popular tweet that and I can't remember who wrote it that was like we I really thought
00:08:07
that quicksand was going to be a bigger part of my adult life when I was a kid, which is so funny
00:08:13
because it's true. One of those top things to look out for. But no, it's gone. It's gone. It's not an
00:08:20
issue. This is called an army surgeon, a room full of traumatized children, and a wedding.
00:08:27
Hi, and welcome to my email. I'm from a small town about an hour from Seattle in the foothills
00:08:33
of the Cascade Mountains. The only things we have to brag about are the second best state fairgrounds
00:08:38
and a supermax prison that is on the same hill as my former high school. Seriously, I watched the prisoners
00:08:44
work out in the yard every day for a year instead of paying attention in geometry class.
00:08:50
Hell yeah. We had a cemetery outside of our algebra class and I stared at it constantly.
00:08:57
Yeah. Our school colors were black and orange and everyone wore costume prison jumpsuits
00:09:02
to football games. which got us number one in the state for school spirit and also number one in fucked up-edness.
00:09:10
Okay, on to the story. In addition to weird prison town stuff, I was raised strictly Mormon.
00:09:15
When I was 13, they held a youth group event for all the teens in town where a member of the church had just returned
00:09:21
from his deployment in Afghanistan and was invited to share about his experiences.
00:09:26
I don't know why they thought that was a good idea for extremely sheltered youths
00:09:30
or why it was a church event at all because I don't think Jesus would have sanctioned it.
00:09:33
The man was an army surgeon and he proudly presented us with a PowerPoint filled with photos of all the people he got to operate on in the field.
00:09:44
Slide after slide of mangled limbs and naked bodies with shrapnel wounds. These are 13-year-old Mormons.
00:09:51
My sharpest memory of that day is when the 18-year-old boy next to me ran out and threw up in a trash can after we saw a guy whose legs had been blown off by a grenade and ended up dying.
00:10:03
The worst part is that none of the youth group leaders did anything, even when the kids started screaming and throwing up.
00:10:08
They just let him do his thing and traumatize us forever. I'd been an extremely sensitive kid,
00:10:14
and I firmly believed that desensitizing experience is why I'm such a morbid murderino today.
00:10:20
Cut to seven years later, I break my collarbone, and who else is my surgeon but fucking army surgeon guy?
00:10:26
He actually remembered me, and I kind of just awkwardly laughed. He fixed me up and sent me on my way,
00:10:31
and I was happy to never think about him again. I succeeded in that quest until I met a quiet Icelandic guy at a house party.
00:10:39
I noticed he has a gnarly arm scar and I asked about it. I am not subtle. Come to find out,
00:10:44
he had a horrible snowboarding accident the year before and was airlifted to the hospital in my hometown
00:10:49
and the same army surgeon fixed his wrist, ribs and punctured lung. Wow. He had been in the hospital in my hometown for a month
00:10:57
while I drove past every day. It was such a weird connection and we really start hitting it off.
00:11:03
Today, that Icelandic guy and I have been married for one and a half years, have a dog,
00:11:07
just got his green card, and will finally be able to visit Iceland and meet his family.
00:11:12
Maybe the army surgeon didn't directly introduce us, but it sure feels like fate.
00:11:17
Stay sexy and don't let army surgeons show a bunch of kids gory pictures, or maybe do because maybe they'll end up
00:11:24
marrying a sexy European. XOXO, Jess. what was the thinking of the value aside from maybe having fear of guns or fear of
00:11:37
combat i don't know that seems yeah wild what's the theory that that is going to
00:11:45
help any kid there's no there's no justification there and it'll like make people not want to join
00:11:51
the army after that which isn what you want to do either it like or maybe maybe because he went through it it is what he wants to do Maybe it was kind of like an anti without saying it I mean we just can know We can know
00:12:05
He writes us a letter and tells us what he was thinking. I mean, man, that's intense.
00:12:11
Also, it's not like high school seniors. Because I understand when it's like, okay, you've gotten your license or you're now 18 and this is a possibility.
00:12:19
Or like, I don't know. Yeah. A lot of questions. Don't you have to tie it into something that is of value?
00:12:27
Perhaps not. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying.
00:12:38
It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today.
00:12:45
I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three-month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required.
00:12:54
Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra.
00:12:58
See full terms at MintMobile.com. You're locked into a lot of things you can't change.
00:13:02
Weather, traffic. Hey, stay in your lane. Your wireless carrier's latest price hike.
00:13:07
But you can unlock a better way. Unlock the savings at Boost Mobile and save up to $600 a year.
00:13:12
Switch to the $25 a month unlimited wireless plan. No contracts, no price hikes, and you keep your phone.
00:13:18
Stop being locked into their games. Unlock the savings at BoostMobile.com slash unlock.
00:13:22
Based on average annual single line of payment of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile customers,
00:13:25
compared to 12 months on the Boost Mobile Unlimited Wireless plan as of January 2026.
00:13:29
For full offer details, visit BoostMobile.com. Hello, beautiful. I'm Amy Eric, founder of Madison Reed, a hair color company I named after my daughter.
00:13:37
Forget everything you know about hair color. The mess, the smell, the hassle, the damage.
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00:13:58
reed okay the subject line of this email is librarian ghost story great another what i would
00:14:08
say combo email. Yeah. Good afternoon, friends and colleagues. Friends and colleagues. Friends
00:14:14
and colleagues with a period at the end. I love it. As requested, I'm a librarian with a story to
00:14:20
tell. I'm Madeline and you can use my name. I started out my librarianship during my undergrad
00:14:27
studies. I was essentially an underpaid and overappreciated research assistant. Shout out to
00:14:32
Gemma, our researcher, to students and faculty members who needed help finding books, articles,
00:14:38
et cetera, for their academic work. I'll miss the days when someone would come up to me while I was
00:14:44
reading and looking altogether unapproachable to ask something completely bizarre like,
00:14:49
hey, do you have any books about the sex lives of the ancient Egyptian gods? And the answer was probably yeah. But anyway, in our massive five-story library containing
00:14:59
millions of printed materials, there was definitely a ghost. The basement level housed
00:15:04
special collections where I assume the ghost came from. We had some weird old shit. When I was
00:15:10
reading this email, I was like, yes. I want that live. Yeah. Can I have a list of all the weird
00:15:15
old shit? And here's a short one. Stone tablets, ancient crowns, medieval books and furniture,
00:15:23
printed firsthand accounts of local folklore, haunted as fuck to be sure. One day, as I was walking to the most remote restroom downstairs in government documents,
00:15:33
and then in parentheses it says, no one goes to government documents willingly, I saw an older gentleman in the stacks.
00:15:40
Gov docs are complicated, and most people need help finding what they're looking for.
00:15:44
I, being the greatest employee this library has ever seen, started approaching the man
00:15:49
to see if he needed help as he was rounding the corner to start down the next row.
00:15:53
I lost sight of him behind the stack and went to follow. He was not there. There is literally nowhere he could have gone, no doors or hallways. I looked around for him,
00:16:03
thinking I was getting punked, pissed because I just went down there to hide in my secret bathroom.
00:16:09
Work secret bathrooms, man. For real. Just go and take 10 minutes and just stand around.
00:16:16
Just sit. Just have a sit. Have a quiet time. Yeah. I gave up as the base of my skull started having this weird pinching
00:16:22
feeling. I walked back upstairs. My left eye stopped working as if I had stared at the sun
00:16:28
for too long, and my vision was replaced by a painful white halo just in my left eye.
00:16:34
Within 10 minutes, I had the worst migraine I've ever had in my life, and I had to have my friend
00:16:39
pick me up. It didn't go away for about six hours, and I tried to stay out of GovDocs from then on.
00:16:46
Let me know if you want to hear about the old guy we banned from our library for stalking my
00:16:50
coworker and asking her to be a part of his polygamist afterlife scheme. Oh, no.
00:16:55
You know, typical Mormonship. Stay sexy and shh. Madeline. Wow. It sounds like a seizure, like what you experience when you have a seizure, kind of, doesn't it?
00:17:09
It doesn't. Not to correct you, it doesn't. But what is weird to me is that we, my roommate and I, when we lived in the haunted house in
00:17:18
Sacramento. I've never had a migraine in my life. I hadn't before and I've never since.
00:17:24
We had migraines in that bedroom. One day we both woke up. I woke up with like, I couldn't see.
00:17:29
My head hurt so bad. And then suddenly she had the same feeling and we both literally laid
00:17:35
in our beds in our room, which is where I had the ghost experience all day. And like when a car
00:17:40
would go by, we'd both start crying because it hurt so bad to hear sounds. And I think that idea
00:17:45
that it could be connected to otherworldly beings or something. Spectral anomaly.
00:17:53
Could be cool. Could be. Could be This one just says the title is Oh You Want stories about stitches Which I guess we asked for and sounds great
00:18:05
Yes, we do. This one just starts, hey, what's up, friends from my headphones? I would gush about y'all and the pets, but there's a story to tell, and that's kind of embarrassing anyway, right?
00:18:15
I tried to tell you the story about my aunt marrying a murderer. I tried to tell you about my high school classmate who became a murderer.
00:18:22
But maybe my story about stitches will win. Imagine this. It was 75 degrees out in mid-April 2016 in the Midwest, and you are in college.
00:18:33
My college had this yearly event called Grand Prix. The overall gist of it was the two weeks before the finals, there was an entire week of darting.
00:18:41
Then it says day drinking in the front yard of a frat. And the week ended with a race of cars that students built.
00:18:51
sounds totally safe. So that's the Grand Prix part. So 75 degrees Fahrenheit during Grand Prix
00:18:58
week, an actual dream come true for a Midwest college student. It was the end of my freshman
00:19:04
year. So it was my first Grand Prix week and my friends and I committed to drinking just enough
00:19:08
every day of the week to not need our stomachs pumped. Also, we were 19. If I attempted to
00:19:13
participate in just one day of Grand Prix week now, I would be out of commission for weeks.
00:19:18
This year, there were a lot of undercover police walking around campus with dogs so that drunk girls would go to pet the dog and get a public intox.
00:19:26
Or they were finding houses for drinking in the front yard. So during Grand Prix week, all of the frats would put up large fences around their yard so that not just anyone could look into their yard and ticket them.
00:19:38
Don't stop drinking. Just make it less obvious. Build a 10-foot fence and go for it.
00:19:45
Enter my friend Carter. He lived in this frat house and was tasked with installing the fence after he had already been drinking for quite some time that day.
00:19:54
Carter had thought it was a great idea to hit one two by four post in using another two by four post.
00:20:01
Oh, Carter. Clonk, clonk. You know what I mean? Yeah. Well, one of those two by fours had split and a large piece hit him in the face, causing a nickel size hole under his bottom lip.
00:20:11
Me, already multiple dizzy bats in, that's when you put your forehead on the bat and run around like baseball, said, I'm pre-med, I can give you stitches.
00:20:23
So suddenly there I am, kneeling over Carter on a frat house pool table, using McCormick's sewing needle and ice to give this poor kid stitches on his fucking face.
00:20:34
Sorry, McCormick's spices? No, McCormick's alcohol. Oh. I think. I think McCormick's like the pouring whiskey. I think it's a whiskey.
00:20:45
Oh, okay. Good, good, good. Because that would hurt. Little steak powder. Yeah, exactly. Just a tenderizer, a little bit of a meat tenderizer.
00:20:55
By the end, I actually did a decent job and everyone gave me high fives and they even gave
00:21:00
me a free t-shirt. Then one of the kids who had been watching this whole debacle looked at me
00:21:06
funny and said, wait, you aren't pre-med. You're in my major. That's correct, ladies. I actually
00:21:11
majored in construction management. I just shrugged and said, I watch a lot of Grey's Anatomy.
00:21:18
And that seemed to be enough for everyone who was there. In the end, Carter's face healed up just
00:21:23
fine. I got a lot of likes on my tweet about it. And I would still randomly get messages about it
00:21:29
for the next couple of years. Now I go to sleep at 9 p.m. sharp and still watch Grey's Anatomy.
00:21:34
Stay sexy and please see a plastic surgeon for face lacerations, Kristen. The balls of a 19-year-old shit-faced person.
00:21:45
Just epic, epic, borderline unbelievable, but so detailed. It absolutely clearly, it's the truth.
00:21:53
That idea of like, I'm drunk and I'm pretty sure I can take care of this for you.
00:21:58
I got this, yeah. Oh, story of my life. When it's like the, I got this when you deeply don't got it.
00:22:03
But it's just like sometimes the hubris carries you through. Yeah. Man, sometimes I feel a little shame about not having graduated college when people are like,
00:22:13
where'd you go to college? I'm like, I didn't. And then you got to remember that this is what
00:22:16
college was like for most people. So we didn't miss anything. No shame in 2022. There's no reason for it in any direction.
00:22:25
Absolutely. It's just like when Chris Fairbanks told me something he did that he was really embarrassed
00:22:29
about at a party. And it was the day after the Oscars. He acted weird at an Oscars party. And I
00:22:35
go, Chris, no one cares the slap. No one will ever think about what you did again because of
00:22:39
what happened on TV. Someone is more awkward at an Oscar party than you ever will. And it's called
00:22:45
slap across the face. You got to look for those escape routes where you can go, oh yeah, I don't
00:22:51
I don't have to worry about that. Sure, there's other ones, but this one, take it off the list.
00:22:56
Yeah. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile, with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much.
00:23:03
Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month.
00:23:10
Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment.
00:23:16
Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three-month plan,
00:23:22
equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only. Then full price plan options available.
00:23:26
Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com. You're locked into a lot of things you can't change.
00:23:30
Weather, traffic. Hey, stay in your lane. Your wireless carrier's latest price hike.
00:23:35
But you can unlock a better way. Unlock the savings at Boost Mobile and save up to $600 a year.
00:23:40
Switch to the $25 a month unlimited wireless plan. No contracts, no price hikes, and you keep your phone.
00:23:46
Stop being locked into their games. Unlock the savings at boostmobile.com slash unlock.
00:23:50
Based on average annual single line of payment of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile customers,
00:23:53
compared to 12 months on the Boost Mobile Unlimited Wireless plan as of January 2026.
00:23:57
For full offer details, visit boostmobile.com. Hello, beautiful. I'm Amy Erick, founder of Madison Reed, a hair color company I named after my daughter.
00:24:05
Forget everything you know about hair color. The mess, the smell, the hassle, the damage.
00:24:10
We're female founded and female led. We've transformed the hair color experience with ingredients that care for your hair and award winning color on your terms at home or at our hair color bars.
00:24:23
The future of hair color is here at Madison Reed. All right. My last email, the subject line is Scotch Plains, New Jersey.
00:24:36
Hi, Karen and Georgia. I was just listening to this week's episode 329 while doing some
00:24:41
therapeutic cleaning. During Karen's story about Larry Ray and the Sarah Lawrence dorm dad,
00:24:47
she mentioned Scotch Plains, New Jersey as the site of his nightclub. I grew up in Scotch Plains,
00:24:52
so I'm writing in because Karen said I had to. Clearly, Alejandra is picking these and giving
00:24:57
them to us if like my name is in one or your name is in one. Oh, I love it. I have one. I love it.
00:25:02
My first thought after hearing my hometown was Scotch Plains had a nightclub with two question
00:25:06
marks. Then I realized I was in elementary school at the time. So my knowledge of what happened in
00:25:11
town past 8 p.m. is pretty limited. I also asked my mom, but she had not heard of it either. I'm
00:25:16
thinking raising two girls while my dad worked full time in NYC didn't leave her much time for
00:25:21
clubbing. A quick Google search showed that Club Malibu was located on Terrell Road. Since I didn't
00:25:27
spend any time there, I looked up an article from 2003 that mentions the building was knocked down.
00:25:33
The club had closed in 1999 shortly after a fatal shooting occurred in the parking lot.
00:25:38
After that club lost its liquor license. Before hearing about reinstating the liquor license
00:25:43
occurred, Larry Ray sued a business partner for failure to pay $100,000. Sounds like it was a
00:25:49
stand-up guy all around. So I wonder if he was involved in that shooting. Oh, shit, maybe.
00:25:55
Or like timeline-wise. Yeah, weird. Yeah, because that was in 1999. Interesting. I mean, who knows? I mean, someone knows,
00:26:04
but it's not us. Other than Club Malibu, my mom reminded me of a couple other places in Scotch
00:26:09
Plains, including Colorado Cafe, once home to the only mechanical bull in New Jersey,
00:26:14
and Love Bar which had a reputation that people who like to swing went there Mom how do you know about that one Also what if you were from out of town You were like oh let go to this nice bar
00:26:27
This will be fun. Romantic. So maybe Scotch Plains was a little more than a boring little suburb of New York City.
00:26:34
Thank you both for putting together a great podcast that I love to listen to each week.
00:26:37
Love to Steven and all of the pets. Chelsea, she, her. That's the Scotch Plains report.
00:26:45
Yeah, I like a quick report of the details, the goings on of places we've covered.
00:26:50
Brilliant. Same. Brilliant. This is a geography podcast after all. This is one of the coincidence ones.
00:26:57
Okay. Hello, lovely humans. The world is insanely small. So here I am to throw my coincidence story into the void.
00:27:06
Or I guess not the void if you're actually reading this. Here goes. In middle and high school, I went to summer camp in Connecticut.
00:27:12
Kids attended from all over New England because, you know, who can resist the draw of musical theater Jesus camp?
00:27:19
I sure couldn't. Current lack of religious affiliation aside, I made some delightful and formative friendships there, and one of those is where my coincidence starts.
00:27:28
Our camp friend group traveled constantly for many reunions, hometown tours, and questionable 17-year-old shenanigans.
00:27:34
On one of those trips the summer before college, I was at my friend Becky's house getting ready and needed a belt to complete my ensemble.
00:27:41
She pulled one from the pile on the floor and handed it to me, mentioning that it wasn't hers
00:27:46
and the friend she had borrowed it from had probably forgotten about it so I could have it.
00:27:51
Fast forward a couple of months and I'm in a 200-person art and media class at my college
00:27:55
where they asked us to form project groups. Thankfully, I knew one girl in class. We had
00:28:00
met at auditions for a dance team on campus. Since I knew she was an art major, I ran over,
00:28:05
touted my organizational skills and desperation for an A and crossed my fingers they had a spot left.
00:28:11
Luckily, they did. She introduced me broadly to the group, and one of the other girls,
00:28:15
my acquaintance's randomly assigned roommate, Kay, mentioned she was also from Connecticut.
00:28:20
My small state pride overcame my social anxiety, and we got to chatting. Where in Connecticut are you from? Oh, did you go to a specific high school name here? Wait,
00:28:30
do you know Becky? She's my best friend since preschool. Why? Putting two and two together,
00:28:35
I replied I think I wearing your belt Not awkward at all A totally normal thing to say I not sure if the fact that I was truly wearing the stranger belt in a random class at a 20 person university made that particular
00:28:51
situation better or worse, but it is one of my favorite coincidences of my life. After that,
00:28:56
we bounced around college social circles, lost touch for a while. The three of us wound up living
00:29:01
together. Yes, Becky too. And now Kay is in my wedding party later this year. It still makes me
00:29:07
laugh to think about how the universe just dumps people in our path that make us who we are.
00:29:11
Oversized 2010 belts and all. Unrelated, but since I know y'all love grandmas, my awesome
00:29:17
kick-ass gram passed away last week at a ripe and sassy 93. She was born into the Great Depression,
00:29:24
got a master's degree in the 40s, raised five kids, and finally gets to square dance with my
00:29:29
grandpa again after almost 30 years without him. I'm one of her 15 grandchildren, and we all
00:29:35
gathered recently to celebrate her bright, grateful, generous, love-filled life. Cheers
00:29:40
to you, Millie. Stay sexy and never underestimate the power of a good belt, Amy Sheher.
00:29:48
What a power email. Yeah. First of all, I love that coincidence. Here's the thing.
00:29:54
What was the girl's reaction? She must have been like, sorry, what? How crazy is that?
00:30:01
I thought that she was wearing it in that moment too. She wears the same belt every day.
00:30:05
You know what I mean? Like you don't. Right. It's beyond. But then also her grandmother Millie got a master's degree in the 40s.
00:30:14
While raising five kids. She might as well have built a high-rise building with her own hands.
00:30:19
That's crazy. Square dancing. So difficult and so amazing. Square dancing with your husband.
00:30:26
With her husband. And living to 93, man, there's like, it's bittersweet, but that's a life well lived.
00:30:33
That's yay. Gorgeous. good job send us any and all stories that you think that we would like that's really the rule
00:30:40
at this point or would hate you know what i mean like nothing yeah in between right right don't
00:30:46
try and don't try to just keep us at the status quo no one wants to stay there and also stay sexy and don't get murdered
00:30:54
elvis do you want a cookie This has been an Exactly Right production Our senior producer is Hannah Kyle Crichton
00:31:10
Our producer is Alejandra Keck. This episode was engineered and mixed by Stephen Ray Morris.
00:31:15
Our researcher is Gemma Harris. Email your hometowns and fucking hoorays to myfavoritemurder at gmail.com.
00:31:21
Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at My Favorite Murder and Twitter at My Fave Murder.
00:31:27
Goodbye. We'll be right back. No messy integrations, no bouncing between tabs. And best of all, no spreadsheets.
00:32:05
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Try for free today at odoo.com slash iHeartRadio. That's odoo.com slash iHeartRadio.
00:32:18
Okay, laundry stinks, literally. I mean, you could just keep buying new underwear.
00:32:24
Not that I've ever done that. Or maybe sort your clothes into piles based on how re-wearable or filthy they are.
00:32:31
Or just use Arm & Hammer Deep Clean. It's made for real-life stings and stains. So even if you don't do laundry the, quote, right way,
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That's the Pedigree goodness promise. Pedigree. Good then, better now.