It's a Small World Indeed
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (118347)
Gainesville, Florida
May 26, 2019 7:01am CST
I have been in Chantilly, France (just outside of Paris) for the past couple of days for a paintball tournament. I have been having a great time, the weather has been beautiful, and the scenery has been amazing. Unfortunately, our team got eliminated in the quarter-finals this morning, but we played very well and are happy with the results.
We now have a few hours to explore the area before we catch our flight back to the United States. There is a beautiful chateau here in Chantilly adjacent to the tournament fields that we have been excited to visit. So imagine my surprise when I run into one of my former employees at the chateau! She was one of my lifeguards who worked for me for about 4 years before she graduated and moved to Europe to pursue modeling. I knew she was in France, but never thought twice about the possibility of meeting up with her, due to my busy tournament schedule.
Anyway, we enjoyed spending a couple of hours together catching up on old times, and having lunch together. I told her I was going to have a little fun and play a joke on my teammates, so I introduced her to them as a girl I met and romanced the last time I was in Paris. She played right along with it, and we had a great time fooling everyone!
It was sad to finally have to say goodbye, but it was great catching up with her again. It just still blows my mind that I randomly ran into someone I know in a tiny little French town outside of Paris! It just shows what a small world this is!
Have you ever randomly run into someone you know in some foreign place?
If it loads, the photo is of Molly in front of the chateau. I had another photo of us two standing together in front of the flowers, but her eyes were closed in the picture and I would never want to embarrass her by publicly posting it! lol
24 people like this
24 responses
@MommyOfEli2013 (81883)
• Rupert, Idaho
27 May 19
Oh that sounds like fun to go that far for a paintball tournament! That's awesome to run into someone you knew too! I have never really been to a foreign place, so can't say that I have!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
27 May 19
@MommyOfEli2013 Judy is somebody that I definitely plan on meeting up with someday, because she is such an interesting person, and so down to earth. I'm really kicking myself that we were so close (we probably passed each other in the airport) and didn't even know it!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
27 May 19
One of my favorite myLotters, Judy Evans, from Australian, was in Paris too, at the same time I was, but I didn't realize it until I got back home to the United States. I'm kicking myself for not paying attention to her travels like I usually do, or else I could have met up with her and her husband while I was in France.
1 person likes this
@MommyOfEli2013 (81883)
• Rupert, Idaho
27 May 19
@moffittjc Oh wow, even a smaller world! That would have been cool if you could have met up with them!
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (457249)
• Switzerland
26 May 19
@moffittjc I loved France and I have been very well all the time I lived there.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
26 May 19
I was very impressed with the warm welcome and hospitality we received from the people of Chantilly. They were very welcoming to all of us.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
27 May 19
@LadyDuck I wasn't sure what to expect while I was there, because it's well-known that Parisians don't like Americans. But I never had any issues the entire time I was there. Everyone was so friendly.
1 person likes this
@rebelann (111066)
• El Paso, Texas
6 Jun 19
That's true @moffittjc but there are always those like Lucille Ball or Carol Burnette that didn't and made it really big.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Jun 19
She’s doing very well for herself, but I don’t know if she’s on her way to becoming a super model. She actually has values and morals, so that will probably limit her advancement. Sometimes you have to sell your soul to reach the top.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Jun 19
@rebelann They were actors, not models. My cousin is a model in Italy, and also a strong Christian, she tells me all the time what the models have to do to make it to the big time.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
27 May 19
I never really thought much about it, but being here on myLot has brought me many new friends from all over the world, and I'm sure in the future if I do more world traveling that I am going to run into many of them!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 May 19
@DianneN I still wish we could have a myLot convention somewhere, where we all meet in one location and have a big ole party!
1 person likes this
@Hannihar (129366)
• Israel
27 May 19
@moffittjc
Sorry about being eliminated in the quarter finals but then you got to meet your former employee and see some of France. I am sure you will have fond memories of there. Have you been to France before or was that a joke?
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
27 May 19
I have been to France one time before, but it was many years ago, long before that girl was even born! haha
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
27 May 19
@Hannihar This was my first time in Paris. The last time I was in France I was up along the northern coast across from England. I'd like to go back again when I have more time to explore the city.
1 person likes this
@Hannihar (129366)
• Israel
27 May 19
@moffittjc
So did you remember anything about it when you went back?
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
27 May 19
@Janet357 I have been playing at the recreational level for many, many years, but I only turned pro about a year ago. This is my first year as a pro player.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
27 May 19
Our travel is usually within the United States, but every once in a while we'll play in tournaments in Europe.
1 person likes this
@Janet357 (75657)
•
27 May 19
@moffittjc for how long have you been playing paint balls.
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (169535)
• United States
26 May 19
No, but my French teacher did. He ran into someone from our High School in Rome. I did run into some kids from our HS in Wash DC one time. Our HS was 8 hours away, so it wasn't exactly a hope, skip and a jump!
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (169535)
• United States
27 May 19
@moffittjc small world bbq indeed!
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (169535)
• United States
27 May 19
@snowy22315 Another thing of that nature was we once saw my exe's cousin interviewed at the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. He lived in a small town, and of all the perhaps 100,000 people that were there they interviewed him!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
27 May 19
When I was in college at the University of Florida, I met a group of guys from University of Western Ontario in Canada who were passing through Gainesville on their way to spring break in Daytona Beach. They invited a couple of us to come hang out at the beach with them, and then afterward extended an invitation for us to visit them in London, Ontario if we were ever up that way. Well, 2 years later, a couple of us guys took a trip up to visit them to do some skiing, and one day when we were out on the ski slopes up in Canada, I ran into a girl that I had met on the beach 2 years before when I was hanging out with the Canadian guys.
1 person likes this
@LovingMyBabies (85127)
• Valdosta, Georgia
27 May 19
Shes beautiful and it sounds like a lovely time y'all had!! Maybe not a small world but God placing you where He wanted you? =)
1 person likes this
@LovingMyBabies (85127)
• Valdosta, Georgia
27 May 19
@moffittjc Doesn't matter how long, maybe she just needed to see a familiar face or needed to laugh or to see your smile.... You never know the reason-that's why He's God.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
27 May 19
Well God sure didn't keep me there very long! It was a short trip. But I was happy to run into a former employee.
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (48246)
• Canada
26 May 19
@moffittjc That is true with a lot of aspects of our lives isn't it?
Just believing in yourself.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
26 May 19
@Juliaacv Very much so. I guess I have so much confidence in myself now because I was so shy and timid as a kid. I had so many obstacles I had to learn to overcome. But it made me work so much harder than everyone else, and now I'm enjoying the results of all that hard work learning to believe in myself.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
26 May 19
@Juliaacv They want to know my secret. I don't have any secrets. It's all about confidence. Half the battle of meeting girls is just having the confidence to go up and talk to them. It is so funny how my guys are so confident out on the field of battle, but so shy and reserved when it comes to social connections.
1 person likes this
@simone10 (54189)
• Louisville, Kentucky
28 May 19
@moffittjc well, that's true. That's not a lot of time to see much of anything.
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@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
26 May 19
Our team is happy with the results. Our game losses were due to our own mistakes, not because our opponents were better than us. It's hard to play in a tournament halfway around the world without giving yourself a week to get acclimated to the time change. We flew in a day before the start of the tournament, so it didn't give us much time at all to adjust. But that's the nature of the game.
You don't have to be too jealous, because this was a quick trip. Get in, play, get out. We maybe had a total of 4-5 hours of free time to enjoy Paris. Which, if you think about it, is really not enough time at all to enjoy anything.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
26 May 19
What's the farthest distance away you've ever run into someone you know? Years ago after I graduated ollege, I flew from Florida out to California to visit Yosemite National Park. On one of the days, I hiked to the top of one of the mountains, and when I got to the top I laid down on a boulder to rest (it takes several hours of hiking up the mountain to get to the top), and lo and behold I hear someone call my name...it was a friend of mine from high school who coincidentally happened to be visiting Yosemite at the same time I was, and happened to hike the same trail on the same day as I did.
1 person likes this
@wolfgirl569 (94717)
• Marion, Ohio
26 May 19
@moffittjc I dont travel much, so not very far
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@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
27 May 19
@wolfgirl569 I don't travel as much as I used to in my younger days (raising kids will do that to you), but now that my kids are almost grown and out of the house, I hope to be able to do a lot more traveling in the next few years.
1 person likes this
@rakski (112925)
• Philippines
2 Jun 19
@moffittjc good thing my husband was alone. I chose to stay at the hotel and he was wandering around
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
2 Jun 19
@rakski That didn’t worry you that your husband was alone when he ran into the ex?
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
2 Jun 19
That sounds like it could have been a very awkward situation!
1 person likes this
@just4him (305367)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
9 Jun 19
It's a lovely picture of her. The only time I was on 'foreign' soil I was a kid and with my parents and they don't count. I lived on Guam for a while, but that's not considered foreign soil, so no, I haven't met anyone I know on foreign soil. It does make the world smaller when it happens.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
9 Jun 19
That's really neat that you lived on Guam for a while. Even though it's part of the US, I would consider it foreign soil just because of how far away it is!
1 person likes this
@just4him (305367)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
10 Jun 19
@moffittjc I didn't meet anyone there I knew either.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
27 May 19
There was another myLotter in Paris at the same time I was (Judy Evans from Australia), but I didn't know it at the time or else I would have made plans to meet up with her in Paris.
1 person likes this
@Shellyann36 (11385)
• United States
5 Jun 19
Very small world. Sounds like a good time catching up though.
1 person likes this
@rebelann (111066)
• El Paso, Texas
6 Jun 19
So far that hasn't happened to me in this small city. Maybe I should get a passport and rob a bank so I can travel to Europe or something.
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
30 May 19
Now I'm going to be humming the Disney tune all morning long. "It's a small world after all..."
@JESSY3236 (18886)
• United States
4 Jun 19
She's pretty and the flowers are pretty too. I want to go to Paris so bad. Sorry you didn't win.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Jun 19
It doesn’t matter that we didn’t win. Just the experience alone was worth the trip.
Oh wow, I didn’t even realize there were flowers! I couldn’t take my eyes off of Molly’s beautiful face! Haha
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
6 Jun 19
You never know where we’ll run into our fellow countrymen! Always a nice surprise when that happens!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (118347)
• Gainesville, Florida
30 May 19
Well, Ruby, next time I go to Europe, I'm going to swing by and scoop you up and take you with me! haha
