We've talked about telling all, and sharing personal things , but this is a real doozy because there is such a broader range, all depending on what makes one embarrased. I'v only been around eighteen years, can't say i'v experienced all that will be experienced...so one of the embarrasing moments, in which i can write about without fearing who reads it would be when i was in grade ten. I was sitting on a bench at school with quite a few other teens. Just then about three boys got roudy and joking around , pushing everyone off of the bench, i fell down to have my pants slip down the back off me. I was wearing sports pants ( those really fun ones). Too add to that, the people who were around , were the group of people from the grade higher who had just read my diary out loud in class because i was stupid enough to leave it at school. WOE IS ME. I really learned my lesson!

-- jillian (sweetunes483@yahoo.com), October 19, 2001

Answers

I have learned through some embarassing moments, to always keep my house at least some-what presentable, because it is guaranteed that the day you just don't feel like getting dressed and you leave the dishes in the sink, that you WILL get unexpected company!!!

-- Melissa (cmnorris@1st.net), October 19, 2001.

My husband is from NJ and I am from Calif. He loves cobalt blueberrys. I have not ever seen blueberrys growing up. We went on vacation to NJ and he brings back a case of blueberry that were huge! He went to work the next day and I had to figure out what to do with them. Well I figured everyone likes muffins to that was what I was going to make. I must have read 10 cook books and nowhere did it say to peel them. Picking one up it seemed like the skins were tough. Well when he got home he came in the front door saying boy dose it smell good in here. When he came into the kitchen I said well I hope they turned out because I did not peel them before I put them into the muffins. He just looked dumbfounded and when I realized I was serious he just burst into laughter and I turned all kinds of red!! I think everyone in our familys have heard him tell this story. Well ok it maybe funny now but it was not funny then! LOL

-- Teresa (c3ranch@socket.net), October 19, 2001.

I come from a very large family -- there are eight kids (all married) and LOTS of grandchildren. The GRANDCHILDREN now have children (you get the picture). For Christmas dinner two years ago there were forty seven of us -- from mom and dad on down.

The only experience I have with cooking turkey is cooking a BIG turkey. Well, when we moved west we left that large family behind. Bill's family is small (just his brother, SIL, mom and dad, and our two boys) and I wanted to impress, of course. I'm known in the family as a good cook -- so of course, that first Christmas, I was having Christmas dinner at our house.

Well, I went to the store and I got a turkey and fixins. Happily on Christmas morning I set to work and by the time everyone was ready for dinner, it was ready.

The look on everyone's face when I presented a 35 pound roasted turkey was priceless -- it was only when I realized that there weren't thirty people to eat it that I began to understand the looks between MIL and FIL -- horror. I didn't know how to cook any other kind of turkey!

What does one small family do with 35 lbs of turkey? You eat turkey until spring. And the one who made the "corporate decision" goes red every time it is brought up at ANY family function.

-- Tracy (trimmer31@hotmail.com), October 19, 2001.

Tracy-I think its far better to have too much turkey than not enough and they should be happy you were there to feed them! I remember once when we were invited to relitives house for dinner and my sil puts a bowl of chips and salsa on the table and my husband and I nibble for a while waiting for dinner and after a while it became apparent that THAT WAS DINNER! We didn't tease her or anything after a while we just left and stopped for a hamburger on the way home.

Jillian-that kind of stuff happens to everyone-dosn't make it any less painful thoug. Just last week, I was working in the garden and suddenly realized I had to pick the kids up from AfterSchool program- I managed to get a quick shower-I was really grubby, and just flew to get to school in time. Well, I had to wait a minent for my son to come out so I was talking to one of the teachers for a while and she gave me a kind of odd look but I didn't think about, picked up my son- another chat with THAT teacher. After I got home, I realized the shirt I had on was completely inside out-big fuzzy seams poking out. I agree Melissa-the day I slouch about in sweatpants is sure enough the day company shows up. What a Life! You just have to do the best you can though and not worry about it too much.

-- kelly in Ky (ksaderholm@yahoo.com), October 19, 2001.

It's a good thing I live in the woods now in my middle age because all my life I have managed somehow to put not one foot but BOTH feet directly in my mouth on several occasions. My worst memory of this was when my husband and I were strolling along at a craft show inside a huge auditorium, crammed with people. I have my way of doing things and my husband has his. Often, he tells me that his way is better. We never come to blows, but over the years I have often told him that I am not stupid...since it is always said in good humor, he laughs and I laugh and we go about our business. At the craft show, there were hundreds of booths of goodies as well as hand-made things. Who among you stops to read the signs above the booths saying what organization is selling cakes, etc.? Well, one booth had a bunch of delicious looking chocolate chip cookies. I bought a bagfull and then proceeded to take two out of the bag in front of the booth..one for each of us. My husband said,"Maybe you should wait to eat them, you might get that chocolate on your dress." My response was, "Do I look retarded to you?" Alrighty then...there was an imediate dead silence all around us..I mean you could have heard the proverbial pin dropping loudly at my feet. It turns out that the folks selling the cookies were a group of mentally-challenged young people there with their parents.....ouch! As we crawled away from that booth, I heard my husband in back of me whisper, "Way to go Lesley. I TOLD you to leave them in the bag!"

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), October 21, 2001.

Most of my embarrassing moments happen because of my partial hearing loss. I think I hear what someone is saying, and then I find out they said something totally different. Around home, we all get a good laugh out of it, but I hate having to ask people to repeat themselves two or three times. And you can't do the smile and nod thing, because sometimes they want your input, and you don't have a clue what they said. The very first embarrassment was in first grade when they did that gossip exercise where you go around in a circle and whisper in your neighbour's ear and they have to repeat it to the next person. You were never allowed to ask for a repeat, and I never could hear whispers. I would make something up, but when they went back around to see where the story got changed, it always came back to me. Then everyone would laugh and ask how I could have thought they said THAT. Then in third grade I had a nice big desk in the back row where all the cool kids sat. I happened to have had a hearing test, and my parents requested that I have a seat closer to the teacher so I could hear better. Somehow all the other kids found out why my seat was changed and I found myself a few notches lower on the pecking order. I never had a hearing aid because the damage to my ears is of the type that a hearing aid won't help. Most of the time I think I do okay, but I do read lips a lot. I can't hear the songbirds though, unless they are really loud or close by.

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), October 21, 2001.