Don’t leave the house without your keys. (Especially if the door locks behind you.)
Don’t leave the house without your driver’s license. (Especially if you’re cruising through the neighborhood speed trap.)
Don’t leave the house without washing your hair. (Especially if you’re going shopping where you might run into someone you know.)
That last one?
I was kicking myself on a recent “just Java jaunt” to the store, when I was (woefully, pitifully miserably) out of coffee.
Say Hello to First Impressions
Now… I didn’t forget anything in my desperate dash to get out the door, but… not only hadn’t I washed my hair, I hadn’t wet it, fluffed it, or even run a comb through it…
A little makeup? Yes. That’s a 30 second effort.
Carefully? No.
Any first impression I might make?
Bound to be bumpy, and speaking of which, cue the conundrum: I wound up bumping into (almost literally) and then chatting with an incredibly interesting woman. Throughout our conversation, I was mortified that I looked like something the cat dragged in!
You would think I might’ve extricated myself from this sorry scene as speedily as possible. However, the discussion around rolling a peach into her path (really!), searching for my beautiful beans (they’d been moved), and nearly taking her cart instead of mine (where had I parked it?) was nonetheless too enjoyable to cut short.
As for clumsiness and forgetfulness, shall we chalk that up to the absence of Joe? Embarrassing, yes, though hardly contenders for my Most Embarrassing Moments list, nor my most forgetful.
Incidentally, I am wondering what most people find embarrassing, not to mention what others commonly forget.
Embarrassed? Moi?
Most embarrassing moments I can think of?
Certainly, any instance of meeting someone you might want to impress when you’re not at your best comes to mind. Let’s see… My dating days offer a slew of less than ideal instances of inelegant impressions.
Hmmm. How about a first date over dinner, and you get home and realize there was something caught in your teeth? I seem to recall an incident of a Chinese restaurant and spare ribs when I was in college…
There’s the old standby, which is toilet paper on your heel… (Haven’t most of us chuckled at that one?) And how about spilling something not once, but twice at a nice occasion… Are you a bull in a china shop when you’re nervous?
Outside of the socializing realm, I can imagine variations on a theme of getting caught in a clinch with an amour at an inopportune moment… The proverbial wardrobe malfunction (so much to choose from, so little time)… And naturally, no one wants to run into an ex when looking like they just crawled out from under a rock…
Things We Most Commonly Forget
Forgetfulness?
Most of the men I know (including those I gave birth to) routinely leave behind keys, wallets, and yes, the occasional cell phone. This always surprises me, but it turns out that wallet and keys make the Top Ten List of things we commonly forget. I guess I’ll stop teasing the gents I know on this one. Still, you’d think the “put it in the same (visible) place every day” rule would work…
One of my own most commonly forgotten items isn’t an item at all, but rather, forgetting what I walk into the kitchen to get. And apparently, this, too, makes the Top Ten, and I interpret it as a sign that seems to illustrate how our multitasking mania can get the better of us, leaving us terribly distracted.
My other “oops moments?”
Forgetting names in a crunch. (You, too?) And no, it isn’t dementia. Many of us struggle to recall names. (This also makes the Top Ten.) Oddly, I remember children’s names easily. It’s adults I have to work to recall unless I see them repeatedly, make a special effort, or use a mnemonic. Go figure…
Oops!
Those oops occasions?
We all have them. Some of us (ahem)… repeat them… and we have no excuse.
Still, a bad hair day happens to us all.
Now, many of us can laugh at our less than fabulous first impressions and fretful forgetfulness, especially if they don’t mean we’re locked out of the house or on the receiving end of a traffic ticket.
As for the rogue run to the market, I know better. Every time I show my face in public, I know it is an opportunity, as it is for all of us, to make a new acquaintance who may become a friend or a potential business contact. How others see us is important. It’s certainly not the only thing that counts on a first meeting, chance or otherwise. But it’s important all the same.
- Your “Don’t Leave the House Without It” list?
- Your “Most Embarrassing” encounters?
- Your “Oops, Forgot It Again” dramas?
- How do you recover from an unfortunate first impression?
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I recently bought some new summer clothes and although I removed the price tags, I forgot to tear off the stickers with the size listed which ran down my back pant leg- at the office where I walked around most of the day like that before someone kindly peeled it off for me.
Ha! Good one, Nancy Kay!
Hah, Ha….Cardinal Rule of Life: Whenever you dash out of the house for “Just a couple of minutes” to pick up something at the Supermarket, you are going to run into the one person on the face of the earth that you want to impress the most! There are very few things in life that are guaranteed, but this is one of them!
For men: I once attended a 2 hour Cocktail Party at the Essex House in NYC and upon leaving, discovered that my “Fly” was open for the entire time! (“OMG, who was I talking to?”)
It’s times like those when I’m especially happy to be a man. I don’t think like that – well, not to any great degree. In terms of hair – well, I have hair issues but a hat is always good.
I always feel like I’m going to forget my keys when I walk out. Not a pleasant feeling. These days I’m hyped to take my phone though I wish I was less so.
Also, I have this pair of pants with a zipper that is more sensitive. It falls a lot or something cause I have looked down and noticed it down (or at least partly) way too often. I joke that they are my pervert pants. Yes, that can be embarrassing.