Embarrassing moments

[thebigcheese]

http://theboard.byu.edu/index.php?area=viewall&id=58063

This question reminded me of the time when I totally ran full-speed into a screen door and bounced right off like a rubber ball. At a big party. Where everyone was watching.

It was followed by much pointing and laughter.

[Marduk]

I once was having dinner at a local pizza hut with my family, and a waitress spilled no less than six drinks on me, soaking me in soda. I've been told I'm supposed to feel embarrassed about this; I wouldn't know, being embarrassed isn't something I experience.

[bobtheenchantedone]

I am in a constant state of embarrassment and/or confusion. Good times.

[Yarjka]

I ran into a stop sign once -- literally. I was running and looked away and I swear it came out of nowhere. Anyways, a lot of people saw.

I was visiting a friend's relative's house once, and used the bathroom simply to urinate. When I flushed, the water didn't go down, and the stupid bathroom didn't have a plunger (seriously, people, every bathroom should have a plunger). So, I had to go tell my friend's aunt that the toilet clogged and of course everyone made fun of me for clogging the toilet. This sucked, cause I kept denying it, which only made me look more guilty.

But my all time most embarrassing moment -- a friend was shooting spit wads in class (8th grade), and shot one at me right when I turned to say something to him. The spit wad made a direct hit to the back of my throat and I started to gag and rushed out of class. When I came back, even the teacher was laughing!

In that same class, later in the year, I was feeling a bit sick to my stomach, but didn't want to say anything. I vomited in class. That just wasn't my year.

[Dragon Lady]

I once threw up out of the window at the back of a bus in China. That wouldn't have been so bad… except as I was pulling my head back in my brain suddenly processed the motorcyclist sitting next to the bus. I still don't know if I hit him or not.

[Indefinite Integral]

Most of the time I'm pretty good at avoiding embarrassing moments, but I have a few.

Once during my student teaching I forgot to turn my phone on silent, and it rang. Really loudly. In the middle of class. We have a strict no-phone policy. Although, I laughed more than got embarrassed.

Another time, I was on a first date with this really cute guy. We were out dancing. I jumped up and then fell flat on my rear right in the middle of the dance floor. He didn't know what to do until I started laughing.

My most embarrassing moment was probably when my sister got me to believe that her friend's younger brother had written me a love note on April fool's. I won't go into too many details because I don't like to admit when people get the better of me. Luckily I figured it out before I went and declared my undying love for him. Now THAT would have been embarrassing.

[Unit of Energy]

After the 2007 BYU-Utah game I went to a friend's apartment. We all lived in Wyview, and I was just dropping something off so I was coming out of the stairwell as a crowd of Utah fans walked by. I took a step and fell flat on my back, at which point one of the girls I was with loudly proclaimed that I should lay off the victory wine.

The same year I wrote a song that I went into hysterical laughter over. I sang it for about three hours straight. To the tune of Once There was a Snowman. The lyrics were I have many issues. That was an embarrassing night.

[thebigcheese]

The same year I wrote a song that I went into hysterical laughter over. I sang it for about three hours straight. To the tune of Once There was a Snowman. The lyrics were I have many issues. That was an embarrassing night.

This one made me laugh out loud.

I have many issues, issues, issues...

[Dragon Lady]

Once during my student teaching I forgot to turn my phone on silent, and it rang. Really loudly. In the middle of class. We have a strict no-phone policy. Although, I laughed more than got embarrassed.

This reminded me of three stories. One is embarrassing for me. The other two are embarrassing for others.

1. Once when I left my phone on and it rang in the middle of the opening prayer in sacrament meeting.
2. My bro-in-law was asked to give a prayer in Institute and just as he started his phone started vibrating. (So in good news, no one heard it ringing.) So he hit the button on the side to reject the call. But somehow it instead answered it and put it on speakerphone. So there BIL is praying and this voice is coming out of his pocket, "BIL! BIL! I CAN HEAR YOU! ARE YOU THERE?!" So BIL is trying frantically to turn it off in his pocket while still praying. He's so distracted that he kept repeating the same line in his prayer over and over again. Finally he thinks he got it turned off and continues with his prayer when his pocket yells, "I CAN STILL HEAR YOU!" So he quickly closed his prayer and sat down. 5 minutes later his friend that called walked in and sat next to him. "Dude! I just called you! Why wouldn't you talk to me?"
3. This is longer and copied off something I wrote at the time. This was at my Jerusalem Center orientation. So, the guy in charge, I forget his name right off-hand, was pretty strict, in a very respectable kind of way. But really, he struck me slightly of McGonagall—someone you just don't want to cross. Anyway, part way through, this student stood up and started to walk to the back of the auditorium. Apparently, he felt it important to answer his phone. Mr. What's-his-bucket didn't seem too pleased. He point blank told the guy to turn off his phone, but the guy kept going. We all just stared. He tried to keep going with the presentation, but we were just about to start the "Rules" section, and felt that this boy needed to be there. So he sent Debbie to bring him back. Debbie returned with the news that the boy had gone AWOL. Based on the look on Mr. Presentor's face, Mom and I seriously feared for the boy's position on the program. He then spent the rest of the orientation focused on rules and following them to the letter and not questioning, just doing. About 15 minutes before the end of the orientation, his phone rang. Yes. After all his ranting about turning off cell phones and following every rule, his own cell phone rang. You could see the embarrassment on his face as he walked over to his cell phone, muttered something about not allowing this in his classes (He's an Econ teacher), then opened and closed his phone to end the call. The look of embarrassment immediately turned to shock and a slight tinge of fear when he realized who the caller was that he had just hung up on. With wide eyes he confessed to us, "I just hung up on Elder Holland." A howl of laughter erupted in the auditorium. Just before the phone rang, he had been telling us that he would be joining us at the Center in May. After his shocked confession, with disbelief mixed with the fear, he stated, "I may not be joining you in May after all. I may not have a job then." Then started the debates as to whether he should called Elder Holland back or wait until the end of the orientation. His decision was made for him, however, when his phone rang again. By this point, we were all rolling on the floor in laughter, encouraging him to answer it this time, which he did. Much to our satisfaction, even though he walked off to the edge of the stage, he kept his microphone on. I love one-ended phone conversations. "Hello. How are you doing? ... Well, I'm sitting here in front of a few hundred students going to the Jerusalem Center. ... I'll be done in twenty minutes, can I call you back? ... Alright, bye." He then turned to us, red creeping up his cheeks, "Elder Holland sends you his love." Oh boy. What a grand way to end the orientation.

[thebigcheese]

Sometime during my freshman year, I was attending a choir concert on campus for credit in one of my music classes. In class, we had gone over all the rules of concert etiquette. So I was now well-versed in knowing about when you're supposed to clap during the performance, when it's appropriate to give a standing ovation, how to dress, what to do if you're late, and that you most definitely do not ever use your phone at any time during the performance.

So I'm sitting there, feeling rather confident in my newly-acquired etiquette, the director raises his hands to start the choir, and all of a sudden...there's this beeping. Really loud beeping. It was so echo-y in the concert hall that I couldn't tell where it was coming from, but I started getting all irritated and judgmental. I couldn't believe that some idiot in the audience had failed to turn off his phone. I mean, seriously, they even reminded us before the concert started.

I start looking around in all directions, trying to figure out where this jerk is. And at some point, I figured I should check my own pocket to prove that my phone was off. And to my horror, when I pulled it out of my pocket, I realized that it was MY phone making the horrendous noise!! How could this be?! I was completely sure that I had turned my phone off prior to the performance. However, I didn't realize that my phone would turn itself back on if the alarm was set. A little while before the concert, I had put in some laundry and set my phone alarm to remind me when it finished. But in my rush to get out the door, I had forgotten all about the laundry and the alarm.

As soon as I discovered the beeping frenzy in my pocket, I quickly turned it off and then slumped down in my chair so that I wouldn't have to look at anybody. I felt like such an idiot!

[C is for]

Hey, I learned all that concert etiquette too! I haven't given a standing ovation since.

Dragon Lady, I actually laughed at your stories.

I don't tend to have embarrassing moments...some awkward moments (like the last two weeks of Relief Society, walking in front of everybody with my walker during the lesson). But my face and arms will get embarrassed even if I'm only mildly disconcerted -- they blush at a moment's notice. I used to be a lot better at controlling it.

When I try to remember middle school and high school, I usually don't do a very good job. I think there were a lot of embarrassing moments that I have since blocked from my memory.

[Gimgimno]

Dragon Lady--that sounds like Dr. Kearl. I'm pretty sure he was teaching at the Jerusalem Center when you went, and that totally sounds like something that he would say.

[Tao]

I'd be intrigued to know exactly what the etiquette (such a horribly spelled word! even with two examples in recent memory...) on standing ovations is. I've always felt that to stand when not drawn to your feet is mockery. As such, I think my total ovations given is... one?

I tend to be too blasé about potentially embarrassing events. So the woman you struck up a conversation with turns out to be a complete stranger? No worries! She's an individual unique in her own right, and can be as interesting as whoever you thought it was. Also, if you've made it 10+ minutes into the conversation before figuring that out, she apparently doesn't mind, so everyone wins. Person you just hugged in the mall isn't who you thought it was? Same game: if you don't get arrested, pass it off as your good deed of the day. Everyone needs hugs.

[NerdGirl]

I'd be intrigued to know exactly what the etiquette (such a horribly spelled word! even with two examples in recent memory...) on standing ovations is. I've always felt that to stand when not drawn to your feet is mockery. As such, I think my total ovations given is... one?

This is how I feel and a couple of theatre people that I've talked to about it agree. It just gets to be kind of patronizing when everyone gives every single performance a standing ovation.

[Dragon Lady]

Dragon Lady--that sounds like Dr. Kearl. I'm pretty sure he was teaching at the Jerusalem Center when you went, and that totally sounds like something that he would say.

That's it! That's him! Except it wasn't at the JC. It was at the Harmon building at BYU. It was the orientation the day before we flew out. He wasn't teaching at the JC when I was there. He did come visit once, though. (Apparently he didn't get fired. )

[thebigcheese]

I'd be intrigued to know exactly what the etiquette (such a horribly spelled word! even with two examples in recent memory...) on standing ovations is. I've always felt that to stand when not drawn to your feet is mockery. As such, I think my total ovations given is... one?

That's pretty much right on. You're supposed to save it for the times when you're totally blown away by the performance. Otherwise, you should remain seated.

[NerdGirl]

I've been trying to think of a story for this, but I guess I just don't get embarrassed easily. But I do have someone else's story I can tell. We were telling embarrassing stories at girl's camp one time, and one of our leaders told us a story about a time when she was newly married and in a new ward and she had some new calling and she was going to a meeting for her new calling at some really important person's house. And she was incredibly nervous. Totally freaking out. I don't know why she was so nervous, but she was. So she drove up to the woman's house and got out of the car, all the while freaking out more and more. By the time she got to the porch and rang the doorbell it was pretty bad. Just as the woman came and answered the door, she pooped her pants right there on the porch.

I can't even imagine being that nervous.

[Dead Cat]

I'd be intrigued to know exactly what the etiquette (such a horribly spelled word! even with two examples in recent memory...) on standing ovations is. I've always felt that to stand when not drawn to your feet is mockery. As such, I think my total ovations given is... one?

That's pretty much right on. You're supposed to save it for the times when you're totally blown away by the performance. Otherwise, you should remain seated.

So, to be on the safe side, only go to concerts where you will be totally blown away.

[wryness]

Mistaking a man for a woman, or vice-versa.

If I could only stick my head in the ground when that (has) happened (perhaps multiple times)...