No matter how far I dig back into my personal history, I always find that I’ve made a fool of myself. My mother says it’s inherited; she did it too. That offers a little bit of comfort when it’s just me and her talking about it, but I still live in the world and absolutely hate having embarrassing moments looming over my head.
Long before I met John via a free online dating site and got the embarrassment of a lifetime, I was always a klutz. I can remember my dad taking me to the school one morning when I missed the bus. Not only did I fall flat on my face when getting out of the car, embarrassing myself in front of everyone in the bus lane, but I closed my jacket in the door when I got up and dad started to drive away with my little scraped hands banging on the window while screaming “Stop!”
Everyone I still know from that day still reminds me of just how funny it was to see me jogging alongside the car.
And then there’s the time mom took me shopping for training bras and, when I couldn’t figure out how to hook it, I jerked the dressing room curtain open out of frustration and a dozen people from the store caught a shot of my breasts.
When John and I got to know each other via the dating site and planned our first date, my idea was to go to a public place so that I’d feel comfortable.
We headed out to some party. It’s not the wild college-type party you’re thinking of. It was more of a ritzy event hosted by his well-to-do friends. But I still took it as a “party” party and began treating glasses of champagne like shots of tequila.
After asking 30 different people if there was a karaoke machine around, I must have thought—I’m taking partygoers’ word here, as I don’t remember it all clearly—it was a good idea to perform a table dance.
So after falling from the table drunk, busting my head and waking up in the emergency room, I realized that this is yet another embarrassing moment from my life I will never live down.
Thankfully, John is a supportive guy who didn’t mind that I got a little crazy. I’m certainly thankful for that and I do plan to avoid parties in the future. All that and I am so glad I went free online dating and met him.