Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Nothing

That's what I have to blog about...nothing! It's not that I don't want to update my blog, it's just that I don't have anything interesting to write! But, due to the pressure I've received lately to "keep posting", I'll try to come up with something.

I don't know if anybody will actually do this with me, but I thought it might be fun if I shared one of my (many) embarrassing moments with you (so you get a laugh...or at least a smile) and then you can share one of your embarrassing moments with me (either through a comment, or post to your own blog). Maybe I'll share 2 stories with you:

1.) I was 16 and in the 11th grade. My French teacher had a baby and, in an effort to only teach one French II class, we met in the mornings from 7:10-8:00 before school started. I had had my drivers license for 3 months and I was driving a huge Toyota Land Cruiser (it is important to remember that I am exactly 5'2" and really needed a booster seat to be able to see out). It was a misty morning and I was running late, as always. I was also sick, which is an important fact in this story. The road I had to drive on to get to school was the main road connecting my school with our rival school, meaning everybody I knew would be on that road at some point that morning. The road was under construction. It was a 2 lane road that they were widening, therefore there was no shoulder. At the edge of the road there was about a 2 foot (at least) drop where they were smoothing the ground. It was also homecoming week. I don't know if y'all did this at your school, but we dressed up everyday the week of homecoming. This particular day was "Character Day". One of my best friend's boyfriend had gotten us fireman hats and badges, so we were dressed up as firefighters. I had on a huge poncho and big rain boots, and I think leggings (which weren't in style then like they are now). Ok, so I'm driving to school, in a hurry because I'm late and I start coughing, because I'm sick. I reach down to the passenger side floorboard to get the box of kleenex and when I look back at the road I am in the process of falling off the construction drop off. Well, in my 3 months of driving experience, I completely flip out and jerk the wheel back towards the road. When the tires that are 2 feet lower finally pop back onto the street, the car (I) loose control and wind up in a ditch on the other side of the street. I sit there for a minute trying to figure out what has happened and then decide I should just pull out of the ditch and drive somewhere (home? school? I'm not sure what my plan was). Then I noticed that the front bumper was no longer on my car; it was on the opposite side of the road. I then looked down and noticed that a lot of things that should be under the hood of the car where in the front seat with me. Oh boy, this was bad. I couldn't find my cell phone but about that time a very scared lady came running out of the house in her pajamas to see if I was alright. Her neighbor came too and I could instantly tell that they didn't like each other because the lady whose ditch I was in told the other woman to mind her business and go back home. I called my mom and she showed up 10 seconds later. When I saw her I took off running and bawling (I didn't cry until I saw her). When she hugged me she just died out laughing and I looked at her like she had lost her mind. She said, "I'm just so glad that no one else was involved, that you're not hurt, and you look like you're 4 years old playing dress up and running to me crying". That's when I realized that I was dressed up like a fireman. We had to stand by the totaled car as everyone else I knew passed us on their way to school. I was so embarrassed about the fact that I had wrecked the car, but standing there, filing the police report in a fireman's costume made the whole situation much worse. When the police woman asked me if the accident was my fault I instantly said "no ma'am" and when she asked whose fault it was and I told her that I was the only car involved she laughed and said "then I'm afraid it's your fault". She was very nice and quickly added, "but that's why it's called an accident". I continued standing there as the firetruck showed up. Oh boy. They laughed and joked to me, "Hey, get back to work", as I stood there watching them in my costume.

2.) I'm not sure exactly how old I was in this story, maybe 10 or 11. My family was in Albuquerque snow skiing. We had been skiing before, so we were all decent skiers. My brother and Dad were pretty brave and would go down the trails that were marked as being more difficult. I think there were 4 levels, maybe green, blue, red, and black? I don't remember, but for the sake of this story let's say the easiest level was green and then they got more challenging from there. My mom was completely happy sticking to the green trails all day, everyday. I didn't want her to ski alone so I would go down them with her, but they got boring after a while. Adam and I had gone down some different trails in ski school, so I convinced Mom to let me take her down one of those. I promised it was easy. We ride the ski lift up to the top, get off successfully, and start our trip down the mountain. We were doing great until a few minutes into the trip Mom noticed that the trail was marked blue. She panicked. She kept trying to stop other skiers as they zoomed past to ask them if there was another way down (a green trail). Nobody even slowed down to acknowledge that she had asked them a question. This made her mad. She made me take my skis off and start to walk back up the mountain because she wanted us to ride the ski lift back down. If you've ever been skiing, you know that ski boots are very difficult to walk in, especially up a snow-covered mountain, carrying your skis, while it is snowing. Mom would see a skier and would yell "Excuse me, is there another way..." too late, they zipped past her, so she shouted "HEY THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!!! APPRECIATE IT!!!". I got hysterical. I was so miserable trying to go back up the mountain, but I couldn't put my skis on and leave her. It was either laugh or cry. I just couldn't stop laughing. When we finally got to the top (at least an hour later, probably longer) there was a little building were you could get hot chocolate and go to the bathroom. This was the early 90s, so we both had those huge crazy bangs that you curled and sprayed and no amount of wind or rain could mess them up. Well, during our long trip back up the mountain, through the snow and wind, our bangs had frozen. I just remember trying to thaw them out in that tiny bathroom. Ok, so we safely made it down the mountain and Mom made it clear she was sticking to the green trails. As I was going down a green trail with her I veered off the main path and found a few little (very little) bunny hops to make the boring green trail more exciting. We kept going down the same trail over and over and I continued going over to the bunny hops. So Mom had been observing this and decided that she wanted to give it a try. Important fact: at the end of the bunny hops I had to do a quick turn because there were a bunch of baby trees that had been planted with that orange plastic fence around them to protect them. Mom heads towards the bunny hops and as she hits the first one she gains speed...her poles are off the ground now and she is yelling "whoa-oh-oh-OH" and then, just like that, she had flown through the orange plastic fence and was face down in the middle of the baby trees. I had to leave her this time because I was laughing so hard that I was about to have an accident. I couldn't find her for a little while, so I just jumped on a ski lift by myself. I started talking to the other girl on the lift with me and as we drifted above the crushed baby trees the girl said, "Oh my goodness, earlier today I saw a crazy lady just plow through that fence and take out the trees!!!". I just said "REALLY?", but never mentioned a word about Mom. Now that I think about it, this might be more embarrassing for her than for me. Sorry, Mom. :)

I know that I shifted tense several times in the post, but I don't care to take the time to correct it, so just know that I know that I messed up! And please, give me something to smile about and share an embarrassing moment with me! :)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think I just did!! Love, Mom

Jennifer said...

Hilarious! I love the fireman costume and I can so see Martha asking the skiers for alternate directions.

I think I have PLENTY of embarrassing moments for you on my blog.

Lets see... maybe a quick one... (I have so many)

Your story about the car accident reminded me of a situation I got myself into in the 10th grade. I ran out of gas on Hillsboro road, right across from Grassland Middle School. Like you, I was slightly impaired - though instead of a cold, I had a broken leg. I coasted into the River Rest subdivision and my car came to a complete stop at the entrance. This was BEFORE cell phones. This was also when sarrong skirts were very popular. You know, the kind that wrap around your waist and if you take too big of a step your whole leg shows. or worse, if the wind blows, your underwear might make an appearance. Anyway, I get my crutches out (yes - had to walk with crutches) and I attempted to cross over Hillsboro road on "foot" (literally one working FOOT) to the middle school where a PAY PHONE was so I could call for help. School had just gotten out (I was actually on my way home alone from my high school)so luckily there was a cross guard for the "walkers" leaving the middle school. The cross guard saw me going TOWARDS the school (everyone else had just come FROM the school) and she stopped all traffic to let me go. The road was packed with cars and they were all stopped, watching this girl on crutches slowly make her way across. I was going as fast as I could, but it wasn't too fast. Suddenly a gust of wind took my sarrong skirt and totally blew it wide open. Seeing as both of my hands were clutched firmly on the handles of the crutches, and I was in a hurry, there was nothing I could do. So there I was, bearing my panties, with one leg pulled behind me in a big white cast, sweating bullets and throwing the massive crutches down as fast as possible. I prayed that no one I knew saw me. I made it to the pay phone and had some sore arm pits from the long walk with crutches. That afternoon I had a few phone calls from friends who had seen me crossing the road. I was mortified. The next day at school several others commented (with great laughing) how they too had seen the event. I could have just died!

Anonymous said...

How about the time that I tripped down the steps face first, backpack flipping over my head while chapel assembly was being let out of the old building freshman year. :) And then there are the leopard pants. Tough call on which is worse!
- Mandi

The Miller Family said...

Your post made me laugh!
My most embarrassing moment is when I went skiing for the first time with the boy I liked ( he pretty much a professional skier) well I had mismatched snowpants, jacket, hat, rental skies, etc ( I looked so funny, but my hair looked perfect around my hat bands!!! ( I am not sure what you call them but they are like a really thick headband which covers your ears from the cold but not ear muffs), which more then likely made me look even worse, well we started on the bunny hill and I was told to make turn my legs to look like a pizza slice > well I did that until I flipped around backwards and went straight down the hill without being able to see where I was going even though it was a bunny hill it was enough for me to pick up some spead, people were screaming and trying to get out of my way, thank god a ski patrol guy caught me. I still laugh about it when I think about how I must have looked. That same day I also would not get off the ski lift because I thought their was a big hill I would have to go down right at the top so I stayed on and then a huge horn blew to let everyone know that there was still someone on the ski lift it was so embarrassing.

Anyway Fun Post Idea, sorry about the spelling errors, I am a horrible speller :)

Ashley said...

Hahaha! Thanks for the stories!!! Mandi, your story took me back... :) I remember one day I fell down the steps of Elam (inside steps) because my SUEDE pants were too tight and I couldn't bend my knees enough to take the steps!! Man, wonder why we dressed like that to go to college algebra?! HA!!

Jenny, I can completely picture hobbeling accross traffice with your panties showing. :) One day on campus (here in Dominica) a huge gust of wind took my skirt up over my shoulders before I even knew it was coming. I was in line at the ATM...our preacher was the person in line behind me. He was nice enough to pretend he hadn't even noticed. :)

Anonymous said...

I'm going to give you a few key phrases. Hemorrhoids. Needed Preparation H. Didn't have glasses and grabbed the deep heating rub cream instead. Just imagine.
norma

Anonymous said...

Oh the Fireman story never gets old. I just remember that we heard you had a wreck, but didn't really know what happened. So, when I saw you peak your head in Chemistry class, I came running out to make sure you were ok. I didn't even ask to get up, I just went for the door. That is hilarious. And your favorite song is "Save Tonight"!!