Good Times

I have plenty of embarassing moments in my past. I remember one particularly sleepy morning, waiting for the bus to high school, a girl waiting with me suddenly said, "are you wearing two different shoes?" And I was. And they weren't even the same color- one was black and one was brown. Luckily, I was able to slip up to the gym locker room before first period and slip on the Keds I had on in there.

Then there was the time my 1st grade teacher asked me if my family celebrated Halloween. Of course we did, but I remember thinking, "I'm not Catholic or Jewish like everyone else. Maybe there's a religious aspect to it I'm not realizing." Quite a precocious thought for a five year old, I must say. Anyway, I told my teacher "No, we don't." Later we had a Halloween parade, and I dressed up like a cheerleader, and my teacher was confused. I recently saw a picture from that day, and in addition to my pom-poms I am sporting some ridiculous Oh-Mickey-you're-so-fine make-up. So I guess I'm not through being embarassed about the incident, but not about being put on the spot by my teacher. I don't think of that as being funny as much as I think my teacher, like so many I've encountered, was an idiot.

When I was turning 13, my mom had a surprise party for me. But it wasn't typical. I was an active tennis player when I was younger, and one day I came up to the lobby from my lesson, and my mom was there, with my aunt and a birthday cake. Yes, I had a good friend in my lesson and there was another girl around my age there, but I was mortified that my mom decided to do this, without even figuring out when all of my tennis friends would be there. A few minutes after I blew out the candles, many more of my friends emerged from the TV rec room, and they were confused about what was going on and I felt like an idiot. In the end, though, everyone had cake and fun and I guess it wasn't such a tragedy. But I remember being SO embarrased when I first saw that cake. I also remember that the good friend that was in the lesson with me was more focused on the fact that the other girl from our lesson kept saying "You're a teeny-bopper now!" I guess she thought the girl was weird and it really annoyed her. It's funny when you're young and feeling like everyone is mocking you, the truth is, they are always thinking about something else. The same is true for adulthood, I think. Thank goodness.