I've had two:

- when I was maybe 17, I had strep throat and, to make matters worse, I had downed a bunch of orange juice, not realizing at the time that I was allergic to things that are too acidic. So there I was home alone while the rest of my family was at my grandmother's eating dinner. My throat was killing me and, on top of that, I was breaking out and itching like crazy. The upside, of course, is that I got to watch football all day by myself...

- it was my first year on my mission (Sweden) and it was my turn to make dinner (we were living with another companionship). I was about done making something that resembled chili when one Elder from the other companionship said "hey, I think today is Thanksgiving back home." I looked at what I was making for dinner and just felt bad that I didn't even realize it was Thanksgiving that day - thinking I wish I had realized that and made *something* that resembled food from back home. It was a pretty quiet dinner. The upside was that no holiday away from home after that was near as bad, in part because I think I realized that it wasn't really where you were that made you happy or unhappy, but how you approached it.

Pretty benign experiences but memorable for some of the wrong reasons...