Awkward Moments Revisited

I was listening to a hilarious podcast from my Twitter friends Dionne and Amber (@TweepNation1) sharing some of their embarrassing moments (listen to their podcasts here). It was so funny; I thought I would share a couple of my own experiences.

A few years ago, I was working in the Psychology Department of a local university. We were providing behavioral services to mental health clients through a county funded program. Every month, one of us had to attend a large meeting at the county mental health department to discuss progress and services. There were about 30 to 40 professionals including psychiatrists, therapists, nurses, social workers, administrators, etc. We were the only outside contracted service invited to attend. One month when I went as the university representative, they had two people from the State Department of Rehabilitation giving a presentation across the table from me. Afterwards, they asked if they could leave since they were not involved in the other meeting issues, and the director agreed. One man got up and pushed in his chair. The other man got up and dropped down to almost eye level with the table. Thinking he fell, I said “Whoa!” and jumped out of my chair leaning across the table with my arms out like I could catch him. Apparently, I was the only one in the room who didn’t know he was a dwarf. Everyone else was sitting down calmly. They all turned and looked at me in shock. I sat quietly back in my seat turning a beautiful shade of red. Awkward. Dwarf guy glared at me over the table like he wanted to kick my shins. I bit back my sarcastic comments; afraid those PC loving freaks would send me to sensitivity training. Again.

Not long after my Honey and I got married, we decided to go to the Oakland Zoo. Oakland can be scary, but they have a beautiful zoo nestled in the coastal mountains. We invited my brother to go and decided to make a day of it. On our way to the reptile area, we saw an African American man with his back to us sketching something on a large pad. My brother is very artistic and wanted to see what the man was sketching. As we approached, I was so focused on watching him work that I didn’t actually look at him until we were all right next to him. When I glanced up at him, he looked like he had been hit in the face with a shotgun blast full of bone fragments. I’m guessing it was probably African tribal piercings; but in my defense, it was unusual even by California standards. For some reason, all the bones sticking out of his face completely startled me, and I reacted in a way that was unusual even for me. I wound up jumping back several feet and screaming like a girl. I ended up in front of him (in some defensive karate stance as I recall) with my brother and husband looking on in horror. Bone face looked pretty pissed off. He had been sketching the alligators, so I said “Man, that sketch is so lifelike it really scared me.” I don’t think he bought it. My brother and husband had a great time spending the rest of the day teasing me about it of course.

 

What are some of your most embarrassing moments? Feel free to leave a comment or write a blog about it and leave the link in the comments section. Hope I was able to give you a little giggle J