Story Weekend: Most Embarrassing Moment
I’ve hesitated to use this topic as a theme for Story Weekend because I really hate to remember my own experience, but here we go. A prize to the first person who can remember an embarrassing experience that doesn’t involve nudity, because I can’t!
If you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how it works: I pick a theme and you share something from your life that relates to that theme, however you interpret it. Thanks to all of you who’ve been contributing. I’ve loved reading your stories. As always, there are a few “rules”:
- The story must be true.
- Try to keep it under 100 words. Embrace the challenge! That’s about six or seven lines in the comment form. I want others to read your story, and most people tend to skip if it’s too long. I know how tough it is to “write tight” but I hope you’ll accept this as a challenge.
- Avoid offensive language.
As usual, I’ll start it off with my own story.
On the last day of the social work conference, I did my exercises in front of my hotel room window, admiring the view of Philadelphia. It was early Sunday morning and the office building across the way was dark, so I felt comfortable working out in the nude. Suddenly, a movement caught my eye in the office building window as someone pressed a big sign up to the glass: ‘What’s your room number?’ Ack! I quickly dove behind the wall, where I stayed, crimson red, until check out time.
One time when I was in high school I decided to walk through the grass instead of walking along the sidewalk to my next class and I slipped in the mud and everyone that was out in the courtyard looked at me and laughed, including the guy I had a crush on. Then I had to go the rest of the day with mud all down my pants. Everyone kept asking me “What happened?”. I kept having to repeat this throughout the entire day.
Shelly, you win one of my books! We’ll email about it next week.
Wow thx sooo much!!
This one is a bad moment. In a sorta recent ‘duh’ moment, I asked a friend how her mother was doing. Honestly, I was thinking of someone else’s mother. When she hesitated I realized my mistake. Her mother had passed away years ago & somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that.
I went to borrow my father’s car, which wouldn’t start. Not wanting to call for Road Service, a friend and I tried to push start it, followed by pushing it to the nearest garage thinking it had no petrol. After filling it up it still wouldn’t start. The attendant came over and asked us to pull the bonnet. He was almost rolling on the ground laughing and called us to look. You can’t imagine how I felt when I saw there was no head on the motor therefore no hope of it starting. It got worse after that when my estranged husband came to tow it home and also laughed, my Dad arrived home as I was leaving only to apologise for the car not working, then the garage attendant charged him for the petrol as he was laughing so much he forgot to collect the money. Moral – always look under the bonnet when a car won’t start.
If you knew me very well, you would know I have so many of these moments, it is hard to choose. Nudity..Well this one..We were at our friends Lake house with a group of friends. Everyone was outside and I had swam and was getting ready to shower. The bathroom was right next door to ours, and I was naked but thought I could just slip into the into the bathroom very quickly without dressing first. I got to the bathroom door when the back door opened right behind me…and yes he saw my bare behind clear as day… Embarrasing..but you know I survived…and it wasn’t the worst that had ever happend to me. 🙂
My first Christmas in Ireland we went to a block house party where you camp in one house for awhile and then move to the next. Since I was the newbie, lots of folks came to get a look at the new mote( girlfriend:) with the twangy accent. Santa had nothing on me that night for collecting attention. On entering the first house , as is the traditon in Canada, I removed my shoes and placed them to the side of the front door. The party was in full swing when we all heard a mighty crash and a man I had never met appeared in the doorway holding his elbow and exclaiming in a booming voice.’ Who left their feckin shoes in front of the freakin door?( I paraphrase here:} I silently slid my stocking feet discreetly under the settee and turned a shade of tomato red that I have never been able to match to this day.lol. Mortified I was. As for my shoes, they stay on my feet now always. I guess it’s never too late to teach this old dog some new tricks.
I was meeting a friend in London that I met on Facebook, I had bought a new shirt online and hadn’t tried it on so didn’t remove the tag’s in case I had to return it. The morning arrived I was meeting her & I put on the shirt and it fit perfectly, Well I completely forgot about the tag’s on it. Until we were having lunch in a very busy pub and a kind gentleman who had been stood behind me a good hour or so tapped me on the shoulder and told me I still had the tag’s on my shirt. My face turned a very deep shade of red as I thanked him.
I have to share my sister Sandi’s most embarrassing moment … when she was in high school she was wanting to be a cop when she went into college. My mother was totally against it but Sandi was very bull headed and took some classes anyhow … like pre college classes that would give her credits in college. She went to the local jail and here was my punk neighbor BILLY SEXTON in the jail cell, this kid was always in trouble. He yells HEY SANDI … what’s up?! She said she wanted to crawl into a hole and die … she was never more embarrassed in her life seeing him there with all her friends in class. To make a long story short Sandi now does accounts payable for a company in New York. Billy I am sure is a lifer in prison … 😛
Most recent incident happened at a friend’s retirement party. I was sitting next to him on stage when a guest came forward to sing him a special song. Stunned by how badly she sang, I got the giggles. I tried to stop but couldn’t. My face became red and contorted and my body began to shake. She continued to sing. I felt everyone staring at me. My giggles turned into loud guttural sounds so I placed a coffee cup over my entire mouth to stifle the sounds. It didn’t help so I covered my face with a napkin. The song went on and on. Uncontrollable giggles continued. The event was being recorded and I was in direct line of the camera. Every second of my behavior was recorded for infamy. I later discovered she was singing The Lord’s Prayer.
The perplexed dentist had already picked up the partial from the tray and was unsuccessfully attempting to insert it into his patient’s mouth when I noticed our hygienist in the doorway, pointing to a partial she was holding.
I calmly moved to the side of the chair where only he could see me, pointed to the door and left. I stood there in amazement inspecting a partial identical to the one I had retrieved from the Ultrasonic. Apparently, we had inadvertently switched them!
Exasperated, the poor man walked over and quietly exchanged partials. We ordered a second Ultrasonic that day!
One friend tells a story on me that the first time she met me I was walking out of a dumpster. Unfortunately she was right. The barns at the horse show had four foot tall, slant-sided dumpsters into which we were to empty our manure buckets. You guessed it. I slung my full manure bucket over the side while still holding firmly onto the handle. Gravity took over and I followed my bucket head first into the dumpster. There was this single moment as I hovered over the edge when I could have recovered. I didn’t make it
every days an embarrasing day as you never know whats coming out of my 7 yr old daughters mouth… in the cinema talking to the lady behind us who had bright red frizzy hair – Oh i know who you look like the mad hatter from alice inwonderland…
talking to a couple with my dad about his old school friends they mention my mums exboyfriend so i say i know him – my daughter yh but he called off my nannys wedding and broke her heart thankfully my mum was not there.
my brother and i do not talk after a huge fight 3 yrs ago atmy other brothers birthday recently my daughter says Uncle Addam my mummy really wants to give you a cuddle she loves you go on give her a cuddle .. to be fair i would do anything for him to talk to me again but he is so stubborn!
It was my fortieth birthday and four of my friends took me out to lunch at a very busy restaurant. About midway through lunch a man came in calling out my name loudly. He was dressed as superman. My friends pointed at me and then the song began. He sat on my lap and moving around he began to strip! My face was red as a beet. It was a very memorable birthday!
The Canadian Goose & her nest of eggs, in the middle of Target’s parking lot, made the front page of the paper. 2 days later I’m there photographing her for a canvas painting. On my knees, getting closer & closer…’beautiful’ I say as bystanders watch with a strange look on their face. She’s so still…I bravely touch her & she doesn’t move…what?…she’s made of wood or plastic! People stare & I slink into my car turning every shade of red…Mama & babies had left for the lake…a fan had left a fake.
OMG, these cracked me up! Margo, yours is priceless.
Diane, it happened about 5 years ago and to this day my family laughs hysterically about it. I enlarged one of the photos of the ‘fake goose’ and framed her so she could hang proudly with my paintings (-O: (-O: (-O:
My dad and I work at the same office, and one night he asked me to bring home one of his laptops. It was after hours and everyone had gone home. I was terrified of dropping the laptop in the parking lot, since I had no bag in which to carry the laptop. So, I decided to park as close to the door as possible- in the handicapped spot. After gingerly putting the laptop in the car, I went to start the engine. The battery was dead, stranding my car for the night. The next morning, all of my coworkers saw my car in the handicapped spot as they came in, and I had to explain this story throughout the day. It was six years ago and I’m still embarrassed as I type the story.
Amidst the chaos of moving from Georgia to NC and after opening a new checking account, I was completing the paperwork necessary for closing the account in GA (before internet). I looked at the final statement and noticed a small balance of less than $2. I attached a note telling them to just forget about the small balance showing. I received a reply telling me they were happy to forget about the balance but for future reference, take note of the minus sign in front of the balance. I could hear laughter from across the miles and promptly sent a check for the balance.