Embarrassing Moments Friday
C.J. Mahaney recently gave a sermon (download here) on the topic of humor, which I highly recommend. In the sermon C.J. commended the use of self-deprecating humor as a means of growing in humility. I was challenged by this and want to grow in self-deprecating humor. I sinfully tend to laugh at the expense of others rather than making myself the butt of my jokes. So in light of this, I am officially declaring today “Embarrassing Moments Friday”. The goal? I want you to laugh at me and I want you to make me laugh at you. Let me share an embarrassing moment from my life with you.
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Several years ago while working at a bank, I attended a department wide meeting. All the department bigwigs were present and you could almost feel the money in the air. I was a newbie at the time, having only been working full-time for a few months. The meeting was eye-watering boring, and I was greatly relieved when it was announced that we would be taking a break.
During the break I went up to a dry erase board that was fastened to the wall and began doodling on it. First I wrote my name in giant letters. Then I drew a giant megaphone around my name. This was clearly my board.
After several minutes of drawing I decided that I should probably erase it before the head haunchos returned. I grabbed the eraser and began scrubbing. Nothing happened. A sickening realization began dawning on me. I looked at the marker. It was permanent, not dry erase. My name was emblazoned on the board in ‘Sharpie’.
The rest of department soon learned of my idiotic blunder and had a grand laugh at my expense, calling into question my intelligence and the fact that I was homeschooled. It was my 15 minutes of public idiocy. The moral of the story? Check markers before use.
Your turn. Embarrassing moments? Embarrassing habits? (e.g. still sleeping with a teddy, untimely burps, etc.) Please give us all a good laugh.
+ photo by alexdecarvalho
Posted in Humor
July 18th, 2008 at 6:56 am
Ok, this is hard. Not because I can’t of any, but because I have too many…but I’ll try and narrow it down…
A couple of years ago our singles took a day and went hiking in the mountains of SC. I was taught as a little girl to look people in the eyes while they were talking. So, I was walking along the edge of the path, talking to a friend (and looking at her, not the path). I walked right into a tree. I’ve never lived that one down.
Or the time my friend decided, for some random reason, to drag me helplessly down the hallway of a public hotel. There were people around and I was wishing the earth would swallow me up…
July 18th, 2008 at 7:44 am
Most embarrassing moment would have to still go to the first ever LOLC Youth Camp. Everyone was excited to go to something that had never been done before. I was in line at New Horizons for the first dinner, spaghetti (my favorite!). Anyway, you know how sometimes, if the noodles are slick enough, and you put them on styrofoam plates, they tend to want to slide around? Yeah, the noodles slid onto me. After the sauce had been added. All over my shirt. I basically high-tailed it out of there ASAP, wanting to change before anyone, ANYONE noticed.
Yes, it is oddly appropriate that my embarrassing moment involved me spilling something.
July 18th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Ha! Thanks for the laugh. Somehow I think you’re going to have a lot of material for this new series. Our most recent embarrassing thing was this week when we were buying a used car. My hubby was at work so I had to go test drive it and check it out with his help over the phone. My phone is broken. I can only hear if it’s on speaker phone… He knew that but forgot. So he said (with the sellers hearing all this): “Now don’t act too excited or they’re going to ask for more money.” It was so embarrassing but kind of funny too, and awkward… My hubby said that was one of those embarrassing things that has ever happened to him.
July 18th, 2008 at 9:04 am
YellerDaisies - I was always told to make eye contact as well, and I’m grateful for that. I’ve never run into a tree however…
Brando - Somehow I’m not surprised that your embarrassing moment involved a spill. You’ve got somewhat of a history.
Desiree - That cracked me up. Thank you for making me laugh out loud.
July 18th, 2008 at 9:06 am
…i remember that.
what happened with the bird seed again?
July 18th, 2008 at 9:11 am
I was holidaying in Malaysia with my relatively new in-laws and family. Part of our trip took us to a remote village in Borneo. As we were looking at one of gift items on sale I noticed a bamboo flute type instrument. It had two finger holes and one very small hole on the other end. So I naturally picked up the flute, put it to my mouth and attempted to play. No real music or noise came out so I put it down.
At this point the old woman minding this collection promptly picked up the flute, put it to her nose and started tooting away. My brother-in-law laughed pretty hard at the fact that only a few minutes ago the end piece now attached to her nostril was sitting on my lip…
July 18th, 2008 at 10:18 am
This has been the highlight of my morning thus far. Thank you all for making me laugh out loud!
At this stage in my life, I think that I am more embarrassed by the things my kids do in public than any dumb thing I do. Since they are like an extension of me, it’s pretty humiliating to have a daughter who thinks that unnaturally loud flatulence in the midst of a dead quiet church sanctuary is the funniest thing ever. Or a son who spontaneously becomes a character from the musical Lion King, complete with choreography and sound effects, while walking down the isles of Target. Yah, we don’t get out much.
July 18th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Okay Steven, that’s a hilarious and disturbing story.
Courtney - You got to love kids becoming Lion King characters…
July 18th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Well, I was all ready to post about an embarrassing fall in high school until you mentioned that it’s embarrassing to still sleep with a ‘teddy.’ I didn’t realize that, so now I am embarrassed that I wasn’t at first embarrassed that I sleep not only with a blanket, but with a stuffed penguin.
The spill in high school, though, was epic. I was sitting at a table with a bunch of friends, enjoying lunch. I offered to take everyone’s trash to the garbage can. And as I sauntered to the trash can, proud of myself for being *such* a servant, I stepped on a sandwich wrapper and tumbled to the floor. The trash went everywhere. In the middle of the cafeteria.
Pride truly goeth before a fall.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Lion King - going to see the touring Broadway show soon with the fam. Becoming Lion King characters isn’t embarrassing, its awesome.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I was in junior high and liked a certain boy. One day when the bus came to pick me up, he was on it. In my rush to get on because I was excited to see him, I slipped on the ice and slid completely under the bus. I just wanted it to roll over me right then and there. Of course, everyone had a good laugh when I got on!!
July 18th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Stephen - only 15 minutes of public idiocy? Is that in a day?
I’m (in)famous for thinking I know people I see in public only to find out too late that it was a case of mistaken identity. Fer example, one Sunday I noticed that one of our worship leaders was not present in his normally assigned seat. After the service, I recognized him gorging himself at the snack table in the fellowship hall. I snuck up behind him and, shall we say, greeted him with great vigor. It was the bear/man hug to end all bear/man hugs. My friend would have received it gladly. Too bad the guy at the snack table was a first-time visitor … who didn’t know me … and said “thanks for mauling me” as he left …
Yep, yep, yep … there’s huggers and kissers and hand shakers … and us maulers …
July 18th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
In all honestly, I cannot recall any embarrassing moments. I am usually the first to laugh when something unfortunately happens to me, or the one doing the embarrassing. I’m fairly confidant that my parents have more than their share of embarrassing moments because of my siblings and me. Not only were the the kids who used to morph into Lion King characters in the grocery store, but as we have aged (my youngest sibling now being nearly 16) we have refined our abilities to well placed observational comments and kung fu moves in check out lines…also, maniacal laughter in the dairy aisle…
However, I do still sleep with my teddy bear who is aptly named, Teddy. It is perfectly acceptable to sleep with a teddy bear. It is also perfectly acceptable to be a member of the Elephant Show Club. Not…not that I am, but, it’s just perfectly fine!
July 18th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
When I was 5 or 6 years old, my family was going to the airport to pick up my Aunt who had just arrived. As we got to the security check, I went up to my dad, and asked, “Will they let me in with this?”, and pulled a wooden sword out of my jacket… that didn’t go over too well with the security guards. Typical red-face moment.
Fortunately I was just a kid, and it was before 9-11. Needless to say, I got my sword back on the way out.
July 18th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
I knew there was a reason that YellerDaisies and I were friends…
In 8th grade, walking out of a jam-packed high school lunch room I was talking to one of my friends - looking them in the eyes of course. I walked straight into the metal bar separating the double swinging doors. Not only was it embarassing, but I had a killer headache for the rest of the day. Yikes.
And I still sleep with a doll that I got when I was 3 or 4. My friends constantly tease me about her because she is kinda ragged.
July 18th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Oh man, Stephen. That story never gets old. I laugh every time.
Since I have loads of embarrassing stories, I’ll use the most recent, which of course was very recent. This week. I managed to fall of the scooter while trying to stop at a stop sign. I have tons of brush burns and bruises all over my leg to prove it. Please tell me I’m not the first person to fall off of one of those things? I’m telling you…something is wrong with that scooter!
July 20th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Thanks for all the funny stories everybody! Clearly all of us present lots of funny material to work with!
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:27 am
Never ask a women if she’s pregnant unless she’s wearing a shirt with the word “BABY” and an arrow pointing down.
Mike and I were the only friends on the groom’s side. We’d never met any of the bride’s family or friends. Before the wedding, the bride and her mom came outside. “You must be Cindy’s mom,” I said in a friendly voice. (How could anyone not like me?) “No. I’m her cousin,” she glared.
One month later, a former neighbor brought her mother to our moving sale. “Are you Sally’s mom?” She was Sally’s sister.