{W}rite of Passage: Over-Achiever Challenge

 Your Most Embarrassing Story (or, in My Case, Stories)

When I heard about Mrs. Flinger’s {W}rite of Passage: Taking the Challenge to Write Well, I knew I was going to join right in. I have missed my community of great writing bloggers and feel my own blog has suffered and needed some fresh air breathed into it. As part of my branching out with my writing, I also need to improve the quality of my writing right here on my own blog.

Her first assignment is coming up next week, but first she threw out a “Beta” challenge for us, since so many bloggers were chomping at the bit to get started. So, for this, I dug deep into my first old blog’s URL and pull out a portion of an old gem. It’s less a story about my most embarassing moment, and more a listing of a few of the great many of them. There are many more I could list, but this is the creme de la creme list, from someone who seems to attract embarassing moments like a magnet. Enjoy and go here to join Mrs. Flinger’s challenge or click a linky below to read other participants stories!

1. The “Old San Francisco Steak House” Slide. It was the 80s, and I was on a high school state band trip. I had on the lovely white “flats” we all used to wear. The stairs were shag carpeted. I think I literally made a “whoooop” sound as I slipped, one foot flying out in front of me. I landed squarely on my “arse” and then proceeded to bump down the stairs, one-by-one…for two flights landing finally on the floor. At the bottom was the waiting area for the restaurant, which was packed. I heard collective gasps and “ohhs” as I went down. Even worse, a good guy friend of mine just HAPPENED to be coming out the the mens’ restroom right as I did this. He laughed so loudly that it qualified as a serious “guffaw,” and it promted several people from the upstairs dining area (in our group) to walk to the top of the stairs to peer down and see what was so funny.

2. The “Right Between the Peepers” Popper. It was my senior year. It was the day before the big “All Sports’ Banquet” where all the athletes get dressed up and are honored for various things by the coaching staff. A big night in our little town, as sports are the be-all/end-all there. I was practicing my three-baton routine (yes, I know I was insane), when I had two batons spinning in each hand and looked up to time catching the third. Only, the third baton was not in the air, it was BLAM…right in between my eyes.

For those who aren’t baton twirling experts, it takes some serious force to do a three-baton routine. You are basically juggling and have to throw it very high and very hard to have enough time to get all three batons around. Needlesstosay, my nose swelled up between the eyes to the same width as the end and I had two black eyes for the banquet. Nickname resulting from incident: “Alice the Goon” (from Popeye), given by the same guffawing friend from the previous incident.

6. The Damning of Amit Bhatinagle. This happened at my first major corporate job out of college. I was used to typing in a “Bh” and hitting a key command to get my close guy friend’s name to pop into my email address field. So, I had something I thought was funny to share and typed in the “Bh” only to find a listing for another “Bh” last name at the company. This annoyed me. Didn’t this person know that MY friend was the only one allowed to have the “Bh” last name at our company, for the sheer sake of my own convenience?

So, I chose my friend’s name and then chose the other guy’s name too, so I could see how to spell it. (I have made it up here for story purposes.) The email I sent, went something like this. “Damn that Amit Bhatinagle! How DARE he start working here! Doesn’t he know that you are the only BH allowed at this place of employment! Damn him! Damn him TO HELL!”

And, you guessed it, after seeing how to spell his name for my cutesy little email, I failed to delete it off of the address list before I hit send. I didn’t even realize it until I got back a message from my baffled friend that said, “Did you MEAN to include that guy on this message?” Then, I had to sheepishly email the guy back and apologize profusely, telling him no, I really didn’t want him damned to hell.

Enjoy these other most embarrassing moments from the {W}rite of Passage project: