Events that shaped our lives

[imoldernu]

I just re-read this post, and it brought back such a memory that I thought others may have had some psyche shattering event that hovers in the background of the mind. Perhaps you'd like to share.

In the different and dumb category: Felt something weird and looked down to see a spare pair of underwear creeping out of the bottom of the leg of my jeans. This actually happened to me twice, once at the airport, once at a store. Couldn't stop laughing.

Wore mismatched shoes (same brand, but slightly different styles and colors) to the office. Twice. Also did the same with gymshoes to the gym but only once.

Not the underwear, but the shoes... One of the worst events of my life...

I was working in Chicago, commuting from the Suburbs (Lisle) by train. It was a major event... making a half hour presentation to about 200 people, including the officers of my own company, Mobil, and some other client companies. A nerve wracking experience to the point of not sleeping the night before. Up for the early train at 5:30AM...for presentation at 8:30 AM... DW drove me to the train, and on my way. Half way to Chicago... Western Springs... I looked down to see... Left shoe brown plain dress shoe, Right shoe Black wing tip.

And I knew that it was an open podium. FYI, there are no shoe stores open in Chicago at 7AM. I scrambled to the train door and dove out, running to the phone. Called DW who had gone back to bed. "Bring my left black wingtip shoe to the Western springs Station".... reply... "You've got to be kidding!"

Aaargh... sometime around 7:15, the black left wingtip arrived... Next train 7:35... Arrived Chicago 8AM... 15 minute taxi ride... elevator to meeting room, and 5 minutes to spare.

This happened in 1981, and I still have nightmares.

 

[donheff]

LOL. I went up to New York for my son's wedding and discovered I had two different black shoes. I attended the rehearsal dinner with the mismatched pair -- no one noticed. My daughter brought my missing shoe up the next morning so I was properly attired to the wedding and reception.

 

[Alan]

LOL. I went up to New York for my son's wedding and discovered I had two different black shoes. I attended the rehearsal dinner with the mismatched pair -- no one noticed. My daughter brought my missing shoe up the next morning so I was properly attired to the wedding and reception.

I went to Manchester, England for my own wedding and discovered that I had lost the wedding ring. Having the wrong shoes would have been preferable. After a couple of hours of soap and water and axle grease we managed to remove her mother's wedding ring and she was married in that.

A year earlier while staying at my parents' house my Dad accidentally threw her engagement ring into the coal fire one morning (she had left it on the mantelpiece on some tissue paper and at 5am getting ready for work Dad had grabbed up the tissue and thrown it on the fire before putting on fresh coals to heat up the water.)

 

[Richard4444]

I volunteer my services one day weekly at an agency, and have clients sit in front of me during the day, face-to-face. I arrived one day and noticed I had one brown and one black shoe (otherwise the same) and there was no way of correcting it for the day. No one noticed - just self-conscious me. Towards the end of the day, I was 'flaunting' it to see if anyone could tell. Nope !

 

[Original Wally]

And HERE **I** thought this thread would be about things like the JFK assination. Sigh.

 

[Alan]

And HERE **I** thought this thread would be about things like the JFK assination. Sigh.

Losing that wedding ring was more dangerous than the time I walked on the moon

 

[Purron]

I talked about fight club. The 8 Rules of Fight Club - YouTube

 

[Original Wally]

So you ARE Mr. Bean

 

[Alan]

So you ARE Mr. Bean

..and I have an entry in Wikipedia

Mr. Bean - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Bestwifeever]

I also used to accidentally wear mismatched earrings (like a giant hoop in one, a little sparkling thinging in the other--I'd get one put in without a mirror, then have to deal with the kids or something, come back and stick another earring in the other ear) and once while interviewing someone for a fluff newspaper story I couldn't figure out why they kept looking so quizzically at me. Until I got home and looked in the mirror at the really odd pair of earrings that my very short hair cut did nothing to hide.

I also went to work with dog vomit on my sweater once. And also have worn sweaters inside out/backward.

 

[Meadbh]

I went to Manchester, England for my own wedding and discovered that I had lost the wedding ring. Having the wrong shoes would have been preferable. After a couple of hours of soap and water and axle grease we managed to remove her mother's wedding ring and she was married in that.

A year earlier while staying at my parents' house my Dad accidentally threw her engagement ring into the coal fire one morning (she had left it on the mantelpiece on some tissue paper and at 5am getting ready for work Dad had grabbed up the tissue and thrown it on the fire before putting on fresh coals to heat up the water.)

So Alan, I guess you are jewelry challenged!
What did DW have you do to make up?

 

[Original Wally]

I also used to accidentally wear mismatched earrings (like a giant hoop in one, a little sparkling thinging in the other--I'd get one put in without a mirror, then have to deal with the kids or something, come back and stick another earring in the other ear) and once while interviewing someone for a fluff newspaper story I couldn't figure out why they kept looking so quizzically at me. Until I got home and looked in the mirror at the really odd pair of earrings that my very short hair cut did nothing to hide.

I also went to work with dog vomit on my sweater once. And also have worn sweaters inside out/backward.

BW - my former B*ss frequently wore dissimilar earrings as a fashion statement. Whatever. She ALSO did the old "dress tucked into the pantyhose" trick THRU AN AIRPORT one time.

 

[Alan]

So Alan, I guess you are jewelry challenged!
What did DW have you do to make up?

Be nice to her mother

 

[imoldernu]

Losing that wedding ring was more dangerous than the time I walked on the moon

much worse than shoes...

One more... Same company as in original post, different circumstances...

I was just a little guy... Special projects manager for my company and was sitting in on an executive board meeting. I was there only in case of questions.

This board meeting is on the 22nd floor... An elegant 360 degree glassed in room... maple oval boardroom table for 14 people.... white carpeting, silver water pitchers leather chairs etc, etc. Two Board Chairmen, Two CEO's, two CFO's, six VP's, and me. Two of the largest corporations in the US.

This was NOT a pleasant meeting. Very strained, very loud, then very soft, then dead silence... a standoff, with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, and nothing going forward.

Then... at the height of the tension, Beep,Beep, Beep, Beep. My brand new Performance Award Citizens quartz electronic watch... very new and rare at the time...
... goes off... in a room where not a molecule was moving. I can't shut it off!

The CEO of Mobil looks over at me, and in a kindly, gentle tone says:
"Are we keeping you from an appointment, Bob?"

This breaks the tension, with roars of laughter, as I shrink down in my chair
wondering where I can go for another job.
......................................................
After the meeting, my boss came over and actually hugged me. The situation broke the ice, and the meeting turned into a success.

There IS a God!

 

[Koolau]

Probably too many to tell - especially in the inappropriate attire category.

1. Went to high school one day and started to take off my winter coat. I realized I had no shirt underneath. Dear dad had insisted I go take out the garbage cans before I finished morning ablutions - simply forgot the shirt upon return. Wore the coat all day and only got a few questions. Fortunately, everyone bought that I was just chilled from walking back to my car for books (or whatever other lame excuse I came up with). Much better than my best buddy who had to give a speech one day. The teacher wanted to know why he was holding his note book in front of himself. Buddy blushed, but ignored the questions. Finally, the exasperated teacher insisted that he put the note book on his desk. At that point, EVERYONE knew why he had been holding the note book in front of himself. I don't miss the teen years all that much.

2. Went to a Megacorp luncheon and wandered around for 15 or 20 minutes when a coworker asked why the heck I had both pant legs rolled up several inches. It was then I recalled spray polishing my shoes just prior to getting into the car for the ride to the meeting.

One that happened to a female coworker. Megacorp ca. 1976 was about as male dominated, ultra-conservative as you could possibly imagine. Said coworker and I had driven to the Corp. Center (HQ) from our relatively more laid-back plant site (I used to wear clip-on ties!). Riding up to a meeting, we used an elevator which was capable of reaching the suite of offices reserved for the upper-upper management (CEO, VPs, etc.) As luck would have it, a Sr. VP was in the back of the elevator as we entered. After about 4 or 5 floors, he commented loudly about my coworker's "inappropriate" attire. She had worn white stockings instead of flesh colored. Don't miss those days either.

 

[Purron]

OK. Here's a real life work experience I went through. I was a financial institution examiner in a past life. At the time of this story I had an examiner in training working with me. We completed a job and determined the financial institution we had just examined was in serious trouble and would most likely need to be merged, liquidated or go into conservatorship.

I did a lot of work from my home office at that time and the examiner I was training was working with me at my home. I called the financial institution's CEO after arranging a conference call with their entire board of directors. I put the call on speaker phone so my trainee could hear and learn.

We had a very serious discussion and the entire board agreed it was best to pursue a merger since their financial institution was basically insolvent at that time. It was a very tense conversation.

At this moment, my pet cat entered my home office and started to dig and paw at some files I had stacked up related to the case we were working on. I thought the call had ended but was so very wrong.

The phone was still on with the entire board of the financial institution listening as I said "Bad Cat! Stop that right now!!". They all heard it. After a short pause, the financial institution's CEO said "What? Are you still there?"

I quickly realized what happened and apologized and explained. We all had a good laugh. I still shut them down though.

 

[Meadbh]

When I was a toddler, I fell down the stairs. Ever since, I ave been afraid of falling from a height.

 

[frayne]

Ranger School 1970, Viet Nam 70-71.

 

[REWahoo]

Sunday, Sept 1, 1968 - the day our honeymoon started.
Wednesday, Sept 4, 1968 - the day my new bride had an emergency appendectomy.

 

[GrayHare]

the cognitive dissonance of the title plus assorted replies makes this a surreal thread

 

[bbbamI]

I learned many years ago not to pull a finger if one was presented and the request was made.

 

[pb4uski]

An event that shaped my life was working in a tire store between my freshman and sophomore years of college. My freshman year was mediocre. While I had a lot of "fun" my first semester my grades were poor (solid C) and Mom & Dad made it clear that if they didn't improve that no more tuition would be paid. Second semester were better - good enough to keep the tuition money coming - but not stellar.

That following summer, I landed a job in a tire store - a jack of all trades - doing sales, deliveries, handling inventory, changing tires, doing oil changes, service calls, etc. It was a hot summer and I recall sweating my buns off working next to a couple "older" guys (only a couple years older than me) who also worked their a**es off for about a quarter an hour more than I was making. After that experience, I decided that college was the opportunity of a lifetime as I didn't want to spend the rest of my years working my butt off for a little more than minimum wage - it was consistently Dean's list after that.

Unfortunately, the "fun" of my freshman year ended up as a drag on my cumulative average so I ended my college career 25/1000 of a point short of graduating with honors.

 

[Koolau]

Unfortunately, the "fun" of my freshman year ended up as a drag on my cumulative average so I ended my college career 25/1000 of a point short of graduating with honors.

Not to change the subject (whatever that is) but let me tell you about how a mushroom cost me a perfect 4.0 GPA in my MS degree course work. Was taking a course which was at least tangential to my MS degree. My prof insisted I take the course. The prof of said course brown nosed his boss (head of the dept.) by letting him give one (1) lecture on his favorite subject (mushrooms). Mushrooms had nothing whatever to do with the structure of the course. While I didn't blow off the lecture and I did actually review the material before the test, wouldn't you know it that the prof finished off the brown-nose job by making half the test credit (with only two tests in a semester) about the mushroom lecture. I missed several questions which I considered semi-reasonable (if one thought including mushrooms in this course was reasonable and if one thought 1/4 of the semester grade should hinge on mushrooms - one lecture out of 13 IIRC). Anyway, there was one question on the name of a mushroom. I misspelled the name and that one more "miss" put me at 89.4% for the semester. The prof would not budge on his strict 90/80/70/60 cut-offs (though an 89.5 would have been rounded to 90.) The one mushroom cost me a semester A in the course. That cost me my 4.0 GPA. But, I'm not bitter.

 

[obgyn65]

It's even more surreal when I have been away for two weeks, now catching up with all the threads. This one really stands out

the cognitive dissonance of the title plus assorted replies makes this a surreal thread

 

[Nords]

Serious answer: submarine duty officer while inport Subic Bay during the Mt. Pinatubo volcano eruption.

Not serious answer:
During one underway we were working up for an inspection, and a big part of our grade was "damage control proficiency". So, we ran lots of DC drills at all hours of the day and night. Not only did we get good at responding to the simulated casualties, we got even better at simulating them. However people still got a little too casual about the response ("Oh, here we go again") and kept looking for the drill monitors (in their red drill-monitor ballcaps) to supply the cues on what they'd do next.

One day the commanding officer put his own solution into action. During the midwatch he ran a fire drill in the engineroom all by himself. One guy. He didn't even tell the XO, let alone the OOD who was going to have to come to periscope depth in the dark with an air-breathing mask on his face. Even today, in open ocean away from the shipping lanes, I'd still hesitate to try to pull this CO's trick.

At first the crew was a little ho-hum, crawling out of their racks and mustering in the crew's mess to get organized before going aft to put out the fire. But then the XO ran screaming through the crew's mess, still in his underwear and zipping up his coveralls, wearing his oxygen breathing apparatus and heading aft to take charge at the scene.

The crew quickly thought: "Holy crap, if the XO isn't a drill monitor then this must be the real thing!!"

I don't know where the sphincters were tighter: in the crew's mess, on the conn heading up to PD, or back aft when the XO rounded a corner at Warp 3 and ran head-on into the CO-- who was wearing his drill monitor ballcap.

Sunday, Sept 1, 1968 - the day our honeymoon started.
Wednesday, Sept 4, 1968 - the day my new bride had an emergency appendectomy.

I'm not even gonna reach out to touch that slow-pitch softball...