Ask Lemmy

I sometimes take the ICE from Arnhem to Utrecht. It's special, because it's an international train with sleeping cabins and sometimes even on-board catering. You usually have to pay an extra supplement, but not if you only ride it nationally. This kind of train only stops on three stations in the Netherlands (Armhem, Utrecht, Amsterdam), which makes it more special.

Not work related, but I used to do pickup games with the players on the best Tribes Ascend team in the world every day!

Got an extra legroom seat in the airplane by chance.

A girl I dated was friends with the daughter of one of Microsoft's founders and we got invited to their house to watch Seafair. I think it'd be safe to call it a small mansion right on the water with a dock. The kitchen was as big as my whole apartment. The technology was a bit dated but must've been state of the art when it was built. Switches for automated everything. On the water we had front row seats to the Blue Angels. They are incredibly loud up close.

The guy was super down to earth. Had a good conversation where he showed genuine interest in me and what I did.

9.9/10, the hot tub was broken

Flew half-way across the country on a private plane for a business meeting.

The mayor used to know my name. Hollered at me at Mardi Gras!

Went to a party at the woman's house who owns a vast chunk of downtown. Got to see the Mardi Gras parade from above.

I was an active duty surgical tech in the US military; promoted fairly quickly and ranked up to Staff Sergeant at about 3 years. Shortly after taking that rank, we had a perfect storm of deployments, a retirement, a medical separation, etc that left me as the highest ranking enlisted in the surgery unit, which made me (a still-kinda-newby-surgical-tech) taking the responsibilities of basically a charge nurse. Chief among these was attending morning morning briefs with the top dogs of the hospital (high ranking officers) and giving report. Fortunately I knew where to access the OR's metrics, so my report was always just a summary of our case load, average times, etc.

This lasted only about a week until we got a new Master Sergeant and Tech Sergeant. Apparently I got some pretty high praise from those top dogs for stepping up (not like I had a choice) and doing a decent job -- but that was PURE luck lol. I only did well because things went relatively smoothly on their own. If there was an emergency or something I would have had no fucking clue what to do; and all the junior enlisted seemed to just know that I wouldn't have been able to do shit for them during that time, so everyone kept the smaller fires to themselves during that time.

It was a weird time.

Please tell us what your list of crazy things was. Lol

I grew up very poor, but my mom's childhood friend was well off and had rich friends. I would stay with him a lot so his kid and I were like family to each other. A rich "daddy's girl" friend of his, who I had only met once or twice before, apparently had a crush on me and sent me a formal invite to her quinceañera (sorry if misspelled) with all expenses paid. On the weekend of the party they had a black car pick me up from school (Friday after last bell). It drove me to a shop where I was fitted for a suit, then a stylist for a haircut and my first manicure, then taken back home. The next morning (Saturday) I was picked up from home and taken to the local airport where a private jet was waiting for me and the new suit was already in its coat closet. I was flown to Miami and put up in what seemed like a really nice hotel. The party was glitz. Everyone, including myself, was wearing something that cost thousands of dollars. Definitely no rented suits there. The next day, I was flown and driven back home. After going through all of that, I spent literally five seconds with the birthday girl during the party before she was whisked away and I didn't see her again.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It was a surreal experience.

EDIT: As an adult I have had many situations that qualify for this post, but I never felt as out of place as I did that one time.

Funnily enough, a similar thing. When I was 20 I had a small business, but registered to the business register just like any other. I got invited by email to attend the opening of the new lodge in the stadium (because they were trying to sell me private seats passes I definitely couldn't afford). Shook hands with the players and everything.

Never anything like that but my brother in law got tickets to a major league game close enough to see the umpires calls which is a big deal for me.

Saved up for a few years to go to a 5 star hotel resort (thank you COVID!) and when we finally went, goodness gracious was the experience so wildly different from a 3 or 4 star hotel. Felt completely out of place there right from our arrival.

We arrived as backpackers and walk to main gate where the gatekeeper was. He was shocked and stammered "You.. you walked here?". We were quite naive in thinking everybody did since there was foot path, but upon looking back, it was not paved or anything. Nearly every visitor had their own car and there was a shuttle to get you between the bungalows. We also got a welcome cocktail and complementary snacks on some tours. We found out that we didn't even have to carry our own luggage anywhere and of course there was dry-cleaning but it was at max 20$ / item.

A great experience, but we'll need another few years to save up for a similar experience.

My parents liked to travel and eat out when we were young. If traveling, it meant we ate with them. I frequently remember eating at very fancy places wearing my little dresses and patent leather shoes and feeling very out of place. But mostly because I was a kid.

Also maybe the one time we flew first class at 14? Oooo they had ice cream!! In real bowls!!! And nice pillows!!!!

Growing up poor, and eventually working my way into a tech job dealt me a long stream of culture shocks. Just socialising with people earning over 100k is wild. The vacations, hobbies, and even anecdotes, are all so different than what I imagined. I feel I betray my roots a thousand times a day.

I know this is just basic working class petit bourgeois stuff (that I'm part of), but the carefree attitude is so alien to me. I can't imagine feeling so entitled to luxury.

I stayed a few nights at the St. Regis in NYC in the presidential suite. Pretty ridiculous, 3 bedrooms, 4 baths, private butler, full kitchen and dining room, use of a Bentley, 3,430 sq ft. (318 sqm) bigger than any house I ever lived in.

Through my old job I got to do lots of stupid shit, fly private internationally, use someone's beach house for a week on their own island, etc.

While aspects of it were fun, I always felt like an outsider, and the waste really bothered me. I'm someone who bicycles or walks to the farmers market with a courier bag.

My older brother is a Tony Award winning producer and I took a trip to NYC ten years ago. His business partner is a former schoolteacher who became friends with a celebrity and got rich producing her stage plays.

Before going to NYC, I called them up and told them "Hey, I'm going to go see the Yankees while I'm there. There are $15 tickets in the outfield. Wanna go?" It was Jeter's last year and I wanted to see him play live at Yankee Stadium. Their response was "Don't worry, we'll handle it."

Handling it meant lunch at the stadium club, with Peyton Manning and a bunch of celebrities in the dining room and lobster piled higher than my head, literally. The most luxurious lunch I've had in my life. Then we rode the escalator down to our seats, through a tunnel lined with every free candy you can think of on both sides, to the second row behind the Yankee dugout, with our own dedicated server, who kept bringing us wonderful drinks. (TEN FEET AWAY FROM DEREK JETER) Then, in the third inning, another surprise: someone taps me on my shoulder holding one of the bases from batting practice, which my brother's business partner purchased and had framed for me with my ticket and a photo.

That was too overwhelming. I couldn't help but cry.

We went for another meal in the 7th inning. The food was still fresh and amazing.

The Yankees lost that day, but it's okay.

I call it my 'Make a Wish' Day.

Some of the tax firms my wife has worked for have hosted extravagant Christmas parties in mountain-top restaurants in Banff and the like. We get to pretend we're fancy people and order the most expensive menu items for a night.

One of the events that comes to mind was a "open" conference at a university that "actively encouraged" "low class" participation. (They didn't say this).

What I mean by that is that it happened during normal work hours and you had to send an email to sign up, but they did allow you to come.

Over the course of the event it became clear that it was a joint PR thing for the sponsors and the university to appear to be "doing something about [issue]", so they had 2 talks, an audience participation thing, where it was very clear that the thing needed most was more funding for people and work material and tools (think PPE, it wasn't that or that critical). ...and a panel discussion between [company] and [5 politicians] that in absolutely no way addressed the issues that were brought up in the audience participation part.

There was very nice, expensive catering.

Pretty surreal experience and something that solidified my belief that some very important parts of our society are utterly broken beyond repair.

I worked at a financial company which had an office in London, I am an IT guy and was asked to go to the London office a few times.

Two of those times I got to stay at The Langham.

It is a far more luxurious hotel than I have ever stayed at before.

I was dating a person who worked in the nonprofit space. They organized a gala focused on education for black students, and I was invited as their +1. It was a super fancy black tie event - something that is far outside of my norm or comfort zone. I met the creator of Abbott Elementary, and she was an amazing person. She even invited me to her birthday party (I didn't go).

A friend invited me on vacation with her family. They are very wealthy compared to me. It was clear up front that lodging and meals were covered by them, but I was hazy on everything else. It stressed me out so bad.

Do I want to go with them to do some Expensive Activity? Of course, but am I paying for it? Can I afford it? Even if I can, do I want to spend my limited money on that? Do they see me as a freeloader? How are these other not-rich friends navigating this because no one ever seems to talk about money? Fortunately, my friend saw my stress and had a discrete conversation with me where we set some guidelines.