A few nights ago while on our way home from work, we had to stop and get gas. The Boss likes to drive the car until it's practically running on fumes, insisting that the warning light that comes on when the fuel level is low isn't any cause for concern. This time was of course no different, and I could feel the car start to chug and wheeze as we pulled up to the pumps, just barely making it on the last traces of gasoline fumes left in the tank.
The Boss was driving and I, being the chivalrous man that I am, got out into the chilly night air to pump the gas. I swiped my debit card in the reader first, entered my PIN number, and while waiting for it to authorize my card, opened the fuel door.
Also while waiting, I noticed across the aisle at another pump a guy about my age. He was at about the same stage as I was in the fuel-pumping process. We gave each other the obligatory head-nod of male acknowledgement, and he unscrewed the fuel cap on his car. It spun off easily, and then he began fueling up. My pump beeped at me letting me know I was good to go, so I reached back with my right hand (my non-dominant hand, I should add) to unscrew the fuel cap on my car, too.
It wouldn't budge.
The other guy made it look so effortless. Not wanting to seem like a wimp or bruise my ego, I struggled with it for a few moments, trying my hardest not to grimace with the effort. Because The Boss had pushed the car so far on fumes, a vacuum had occurred in the fuel system, holding the gas cap down like a vise. Much to my chagrin, I had to turn around and switch to my left hand (that's what she said), but still I had to wrestle with it to get the damn thing open.
After setting the pump handle inside and clicking down the hold switch, I looked back over at the other guy. He gave me a knowing nod and shrugged his shoulders. I replied about as much, throwing in a backwards nod gesturing towards the drivers seat. He seemed to understand and nodded again.
In those situations, it's always better for one's ego to shift the blame elsewhere.
What kind of awkward or embarrassing situations have you been in lately?
Have a good weekend, everyone.
25 Comments:
That happens to me all the time... but I'm a girl, so I guess it doesn't count.
I'm a producer at a local tv station. Sometimes we make maps to show where wrecks, etc. happen and the producers have to send the graphics people requests for them.
Well yesterday, we had two stories from the same place that needed maps. One had already been made and I had to write up a request for the other one. Well, apparently I confused myself 'cause I wrote up a request for the map that already existed. That wouldn't have been bad on its own if it had been caught before the show. Instead, we get to the first story and there's no map. Lots of confusion and trying to figure out why the graphics op didn't make it... only to discover I'm an idiot.
I was in a rather awkward situation once. The day before graduation, my class decided to organise a class party in school. We all brought this and that-from marshmallows to chips, Coke to apple juice. The first task was to open up everything of course. Me being me, I sat back to observe as my classmates wrestled with bags of chips and stubborn bottle caps. There was one particular bottle cap that a friend of mine was having major problems with. She consulted the class's top arm wrestler for help. Now, one thing you must know about me is that I rule in the land of unscrewing bottles. And I was very proud of that fact, having few other areas I could be proud of. Holding my head up high, I sauntered forward and held out my hand for the difficult bottle wordlessly, confident I would be able to tackle it. I was right. Too right. With one easy thrust, the cap flew off the bottle...a trail of fizzy grape soda propelling it forward. I stared. The soda kept coming. It seemed endless, like a long snake magically sprouting from a bottle. Abracadabra! I sheepishly looked down at the mess I had created with a slightly bruised heart as everyone bustled to clean it up. In all the chaos that ensued, I resumed my usual routine, sitting back and observing the work going on. This time though, I had my fingers to lick clean for extra entertainment.
Last week I tripped over a 2x4 Paul put down in the garage to give me a place to stop when I pull in. I already have one of the tennis ball contraptions hanging from the rafters so I know exactly where to stop.
Out of the car, heading to the trash in front I caught my right foot on the 2x4. I was moving right along so I had no chance to stop myself and I flew forward. There was a plastic box fan standing in front of the trash which I knocked over and ended up sitting on. Don't know whether that fan is ever going to rotate again! I was so mad, I got up, found a mallet and POUNDED that 2x4 out from under my tire, walked into the house with it and ceremoniously threw it into the fire going in the fireplace. My thigh was so sore and the bruise that came out looked like I'd been beaten. At least I didn't have an audience but it was still embarassing not to be able to stop a full-on fall.
About a week or so ago, my car died and I had to have it towed to the dealership to see what it would cost to fix it. Well, it ended up being far more expensive than we wanted to pay for a car that was 12 years old and had almost 270,000 miles on it. So we ask them if we could leave it there while we shopped for a new car. They said that would be fine.
So we started looking at this sweet new Honda Accord, which we ended up saying we would like to get. We worked out a deal on the trade in of the other car and were well on our way to a new car.
We ended up having to come back the next day to bring in the title of the old car and to clean out some of my personal belongings, but when we got there the salesman had already been kind enough to gather everything into a box for me.
Including the vibrator that had been jokingly placed in the center console, that I had forgotten about.
I had my very first group interview on Wednesday and the interviewer left us all sitting in a silent circle. Finally someone broke the awkwardness by admitting that it was indeed very awkward.
It was after a meeting on my way home that I noticed I needed to get gas. I pulled into the gas station, got out, luckily had my coat on, slid my debit card through and filled the tank, went back to pull open the door and it was locked. When I was at the meeting I had locked the doors and used the key to get into the drivers side to drive home. The door was technically still locked when I got out and I had left my purse with cell phone and keys in the car. When a policeman came to the convenient store to get coffee, I asked if he would get my car unlocked and he did!
Awkwardness? How 'bout my babysitter greeting me and my daughter wearing only a towel this morning? That was pretty awkward...
Just this day, a teacher called me at work.. I had just gotten in the office at 9 in the morning..My boss, the College Registrar, answered the phone.. She said that the call was about the booklet that she wanted me to lay-out.. Now I thought that the person on the line was a "she", because the one coordinating between the printing press and the ones doing the lay-out was a woman, so I cheerily said on the phone:
"Hello, good morning Ma'am"
turns out, the person on the other line was one of my teachers(I'm a working student).. He was a bit surprised with my greeting, then he added:
"Who are you calling "Ma'am"? This is Mr. Albela, now listen..."
I had just made a fool of myself early in the morning..
Oh but that made me laugh.
The last awkward situation I was in was last week during school. Stupidly, I left my laptop sitting on my desk while I went to the bathroom and when I returned some douchebag was looking up porn and chat roulette on my computer.
Sigh. I hate high school boys.
The worst part is that this is the guy that my twin sister has a crush on and he was over at my house later than night.
Can you say awkward?
WhereForArtThouRomeo
Well my life is full of the awkward. I can't think of anything right now, but just give me five minutes and I'm sure something will happen. I can't say I've ever had a stand off at a gas pump before. You win there!
Umm, just recently (this HAS happened before, but I wasnt caught) I got into someone else's car and was buckled up before I realized, hey, this doesnt look right.. Realizing my error I am quickly unbuckling and look up to see the owners of the car looking at me like WTF are you DOING?? I get out, point to my identical Jetta right next to theirs, and whisper sorry, as I slunked away. << Is slunked a word?
PS - dont let my insurance company know I dont lock my car when I do my Quick Chek runs mmkay? Apparently nobody else does either!
Dude, pumping the gas isn't chivalrous; it's just a "man job," plain and simple. :)
Using all the gas is just your boss's attempt to save money.
It's probably more like she is trying to see what kind of mileage the car is getting.
Better idea though, is to put the exact amount of gas into your tank (before it is leaching from the bottom dred gross stuff that fucks up your tank) every week.
You should never let your tank go to bottom. Its dirty and fucks up your car.
Side note - I LOVE living in NJ where its ILLEGAL to pump your own gas. And nationwide, we are one of the lower rates in spite of that!
I've honestly never run into that problem, but I can tell you it's extremely un-manly to not be able to open a bottle of soda . . .
my life is a series of awkward moments. but mainly i just wanted to see if you knew that monday, march 15th is unoffically the offical "that's what she said" day. i'm not making that up. it's on facebook as a national event, so it must be true! HA! but nonetheless, the goal is to get as many "that's what she saids" in as possible! my friends and i are quite excited. yep, you guessed it. i lead an intensely exciting life...
should've included the links...
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=328038833794&index=1
and just for fun...
http://www.TWSSstories.com
I just saw a movie trailer with Miley Cyrus as the star. I think that qualifies as my most embarrassing moment in at least several months.
Ashton King: Happens to the best of us. =)
Vanessa: Brilliant!
Sandy: Sounds exactly like something that'd happen to me.
Sus: AWE. SOME.
Heather: Nice.
TechnoBabe: How very convenient!
Amber Page Writes: Sounds like my kind of babysitter.
Eissel: I hate it when that happens.
Miss Grace: Then I suppose it was worth it.
Juliette: That is both awesome and awful.
Carissa: Sweet!
Melissa: Slunked is totally a word.
Coach J: Good point. =)
Dylan Murphy: More like she waits until it's on it's last breath when I'm in the car next to get me to pump the gas for her.
Melissa: Believe me, I know. I've tried telling her that, but she still does it her way.
Mystern: Indeed it is.
Nicki: That is incredible!
Poppy: I would have to agree with you on that one.
My daughter was invited to a birthday party of another little girl in her kindergarten class. I had met a bunch of the children and their parents, and wasn't QUITE sure whose house the party was at. When we got the invitation I went to the address on the card. ( We live in military housing so it's not like I was going to be threatened, or anything.)
I pull up to the house and the mother is outside waiting on her kids to get off the bus. I was extremely relieved to see it happened to be one of the parents I was slowly becoming friends with. I hop out of the car all excited it was someone I knew, and when I'm excited I don't pay attention.
Little did I know I parked right next to one of those road drains that slightly slant and go under the sidewalk. So when I started walking, my platform flip flop went sideways, and I tripped. I hit my FACE on the sidewalk and the asphalt of the road when I wasn't able to catch myself. I started bleeding immediately and the next day left side of my face was swollen with scrapes and bruises. The funniest thing was that only the left side of my lips swelled up too and when I smiled, it was crooked. I didn't go in public for a month after that in fear that someone would think my husband was beating me.
I have pictures I look at now and I just laugh cause that isn't the only time I have had problems with platform flip flops! I try not to wear them anymore.
Great story! An embarrassing situation for me recently? Well today I went out for a walk, came home, put my key in the lock and turned. Nothing happened so I tried again and again practically trying to kick the door in so I could get back in to my house, then I realized that I'd turned down the wrong street and I was in fact trying to break into my neighbors house. The End :)
We have dogs. An eldery adult, and a patience-testing puppy. When you have dogs in the winter, you tend to open the sliding glass door and let them wander outside to "do their business" on their own.....because...well...it's d*mn cold out there, that's why?
Unfortunately, in the spring, this means the backyard is "a mess" and so is the new deck you put in this last summer.
Our little puppy was 1/4 the size of the drifts of snow....so she would just go as far out on the deck as she could manage, and do her thing.
Now, it's spring, we have to start cleaning it all up. I started by sweeping off tree (and puppy) debris from the deck last night.
As I'm sweeping, the neighbors (young 20's) come out of the house, and look to see what I'm doing. It's annoying, but I'm used to it. As I'm trying to act like I don't have an audience, I step in something. (ugh!) Do I do the normal "cuss and swear, then dance around like a girl saying ick, ick ick?" Nope...I just keep sweeping. With my foot landing uneven on the deck with each step...because of the hunk of something now permanently adhered to the bottom of my shoe.
When I think the neighbors have left, I try to scrape the lump from the bottom of my shoe onto the back of the broom...and about take a header off the end of the deck in the process.
They were still outside watching. (sigh)
that's a great story. A couple weeks ago I dropped my gas cap under my minivan. After filling up I dropped to one knee in the slush and got it out. I got to work and told my boss the story. Who promptly said to me...why didn't you drive the car ahead and then go back and pick it up? I had to laugh because it had never occurred to me!
Things happen. That's what I found out. My most embarrassing thing recently? I went to my local lumber store, talked to the foreman and arranged a delivery ticket. When it arrived the next day, I realized I hadn't yet paid for it.
Post a Comment