Embarrassing yourself in public

[Zygella]

Is it just me? I keep on going through really embarrassing stuff I've done in my head.

Cringing still about how 4 years ago I went over to greet some people I once knew. And they pretended to not know who I was. I still see them around occasionally so make sure to hurry past and look at the floor.

I can remember so much more. And I worry am I usually socially inept or are other people like this?

I can never understand people who laugh at someone who has fallen over. I've had this a few times over the years thankfully without any serious injury (apart from my pride!) but they don't know that! I was on a bus a few years ago and the driver,as usual,started driving off before I'd sat down. I'm disabled,use a crutch when I'm out and about and I'm not very steady on my feet on a moving vehicle. I tried to lower myself into a seat just as the bus lurched forward and I ended up falling onto the arm rest, really hurting my back. The bloke sitting opposite me started sniggering. My DD was with me and she snapped at him 'You think it's funny do you, laughing at a disabled person hurting themselves?'. He had the grace to apologise.

I’m extremely socially awkward due to dyspraxia which I only recently discovered I have. I can’t tell left from right, I can’t open packets and I don’t anticipate things in advance. My life is hell due to others assuming I’m a bit of a simpleton. But I can read Sophocles in the original and others depend on me in an emergency because they look to me for instructions. Funny old life

Don't!!

look then dead in the eye, give them a filthy look, then turn away. Don't act like you're lesser than those rude twats!! 🌷

I went to a wedding about 15 years ago. We arrived at the reception first, the waitress had a tray of champagne 🥂 I picked a glass….then put it back and picked up a better looking glass with a strawberry on it. Waitress said sorry you can’t have that it’s for the bride and groom.

I can still feel the embarrassment now. No one else was there except my husband. The couple’s marriage lasted about 2 years and the bride has since remarried and had two kids. But me….i still remember that strawberry 🤦🏼‍♀️

🤣

I've done countless embarrassing things, but I couldn't tell you what except for one thing that I won't forget EVER.

I was back in a country I used to live in & my Dad died suddenly & I had to cancel a lunch date with an old friend (years before we were very close, had lived together & travelled together & I knew her family well) but we had drifted apart when I moved country & she got married.

Anyway, she came to the funeral & it was so liveky to see her, but I was struggling to hold it together. Making small talk was a bit beyond me! I asked how her Mum was (I loved her Mum) & she went white & reminded me she was dead. I have never felt so awful in my life & I will never forget it.

i sent her an apology card & flowers & we did meet up before I came home, but it has put a wedge between us that I've never been able to shift since & it makes me so sad.

I’m dyspraxic! The left and right thing is a nightmare. Years ago, I got a job in a town I’d never been to and asked a friend for directions from the train station to my new place of work. He knew how bad my right and left thing was so asked me which wrist I wore my watch on.

His directions then were “watch”, “nae watch” all the way. I got there but then on the way back I didn’t reverse them and ended up in the middle of nowhere 🤣.

That's awful! I'm so sorry that happened. It seems even worse as you are visibly disabled.

At the time I guess I looked like a skeleton but apart from that they might have just thought a 40 yo falls over, it's probably not that serious. To be fair some stopped laughing and started trying to seem concerned when they could see how bad it was. Luckily my neighbour was there who was really lovely.

Gawd that was the most painful thing to ever happen to me though. Actually trying to x-ray me was worse than the fall. Thankfully I had emergency surgery and now have a metal plate in my leg!

I have L written on my left hand but even then I still get it under pressure. It’s a bitch ain’t it

I once slipped and fell and ended up lying on my back with my legs in the air. My friend laughed so much she wet herself and had to walk home with a big dark patch on her jeans. I felt embarrassed about the fall for ages but she still feels embarrassed about the wet patch, 30 years later.

🤣 - What happened next once you realised it wasn’t her? I need to know!

That says more about them than you, rotten assholes. I hope they are embarrassed

It really is, then people say “why don’t you drive”? They don’t get that the right/left thing plus having to use my eyes, hands and feet at the same time is a motorway pile up ready to happen, especially if someone asks me something.

You’re a kindred spirit 🍷x

I will never drive. I find it stressful and I’m much happier without it. Glad to connect with you

Oh my gosh! Are you ok now?

You must look young and fit; when I fall over (often), people rush to help me up… because I’m old.

Some people are just weird. That happened to me once. Someone I had worked with in the past.
I was walking round a department store and they (he) was behind the handbag counter. I said 'Hi' how are you?' I could see he recognised me straight away, but he sort of dithered a bit, then said ... "Do I know you? "...I just said 'Apparently not', and walked away.

When that happens it's their problem, not yours; don't let it bother you.

Thank you, I'm fine now. I was anorexic and osteoporosis sadly so that's why I broke it so easily. I'm in recovery so yeah it's all good. I got a metal plate in my femur! X

I once walked in to an evening reception and went straight to congratulate the bride and groom (didn’t even know them that well).

They were in the middle of their first dance, with me pestering them on the dance floor 😬.

I hadn’t been to many weddings before that.

I have issues with facial recognition and I was in B&Q about 15 years ago, saw my then partners uncle and his wife and greeted them with a hug and got chatting, then something came up that happened on our street and I asked how they knew about it, my partner looked awkward and said they lived next door, it was only my new next door neighbours we had met the week before when we had just moved in, he said after he wondered why I had hugged them!

Same 😊x

The older you get the less you will care about such incidents with people whom you are never going to meet again.

I went out with my trousers on back to front today. Only realised when I tried to put something in my pocket.

@TessSaysYes, would you be so kind as to explain your Parkinson's quip to me please, as I am not aware of losing one's long term memory as being a particular Parkinson's symptom. To my mind, tremors and slower, and stiffer movements, are at least the two most well known symptoms? So, I suppose I am wondering why you didn't make a quip about Dementia, or that maybe they all had brain tumours?

I think my most embarrassing moment was when I was young. Working in a cafe bar, the manager was showing me the ropes, she said if someone asks for cake, take over a tray of assorted cakes so they can pick what they want, and she gestured to a huge tray crammed with cake.
So someone asked...I picked the tray up, which was like a bakers catering tray that held loads of cakes....and wobbled over to the customer with it. She was quite bemused, but chose one, I wobbled back with the tray, placed it back on the shelf, walked off, and heard an almighty crash. I hadn't put the it back securely.

What I should have done was place half a dozen cakes on a smaller tray to show the customer.

I lasted less than a week in that job.

Aww, that's such a shame that you're punishing yourself for a momentary lapse in what were really difficult circumstances. You've apologised - I'm sorry she doesn't understand. It would be good if you could both put it behind you.