Lately I keep remembering things that happened many moons ago that at the time were very embarrassing. Four incidents in particular. Two were not funny then and are not funny now, but the other two are funny now and were pretty funny at the time too.
The first not funny one is from when I was teaching at the little Christian school in Homestead. I taught 1st grade most of the time, but the first semester I taught middle and high school English and I had never taught before and was always finding things very clear in my head that were completely muddled when I tried to impress them upon my students. One thing was the value of points on tests. My high school had graded things in fractions - 12/20 for example - and this made perfect sense to me. But this school graded everything on a percent scale, which I was always forgetting. So I gave a test to the sophomores and told them in advance that the essay question would be worth ten points - my thought 10 of 20. It just so happened that the principle's son was in that class and he thought 10 of 100, didn't want to write the essay and blew it off figuring he'd get a 90. Oh boy, so after I gave him an F, his mom (the principal) came down to my room. I remember her saying that she needed to take of her principal hat and put on her parent hat, but I can't remember how we resolved the whole issue.
The second not funny one is from when I worked as a legal secretary. Actually the job was for the receptionist, but during my interview, the office manager told me they really needed another secretary and long story short - one of the underling secretaries got de-moted to receptionist and I was not her favorite person. So of course, she quit and I had to be the receptionist until they hired another one. (As a side, it is cruel to have a non-Spanish speaker answer phones in Miami.) One day for whatever reason I called this woman and somehow she was not who I intended to call. She was a super difficult person and I got very flustered and
hung up on her without saying where I was calling from - she checked her caller ID and called me back and told me off. Yipee. I figured I would lose my job after that, but when my boss found out, he blew it off because he seemed to think that particular woman was annoying.
Of course the funny ones are from college! Every year our BSU (Baptist Student Union) had a Christmas banquet and everyone dressed up formally for the party. One particular year (either my junior or senior year) everyone seemed to be in an extra festive mood and one of the girls decided to have a party the following weekend - and she said it would also be fancy dress, which my roommate Autumn and friend Dana and I took seriously. Autumn, Dana and I dressed formal dresses and showed up at the party to find...everyone (
EVERYONE) else in blue jeans. The best thing about all this was that I was not alone!!! And I think we may have left extraordinarily early. We may have gone back dressed down, but I evidently I blocked that part out!
Finally, this is my favorite, so I hope it makes sense! Our main dining hall on campus was always having special meals and one of the biggest was Mardi Gras. They really went all out. A few weeks after Mardi Gras, someone was looking through the campus newspaper and pointed out some quotes taken from the dining hall comment box. One of them read: "Mardi Gras was one of the greatest experiences of my life!" Which was hilarious until I saw that the person quoted was me! I sooooooo did not write that! No one admitted to signing my name to the card, and the whole thing remains a mystery to this day!
Lately I keep remembering things that happened many moons ago that at the time were very embarrassing. Four incidents in particular. Two were not funny then and are not funny now, but the other two are funny now and were pretty funny at the time too.
The first not funny one is from when I was teaching at the little Christian school in Homestead. I taught 1st grade most of the time, but the first semester I taught middle and high school English and I had never taught before and was always finding things very clear in my head that were completely muddled when I tried to impress them upon my students. One thing was the value of points on tests. My high school had graded things in fractions - 12/20 for example - and this made perfect sense to me. But this school graded everything on a percent scale, which I was always forgetting. So I gave a test to the sophomores and told them in advance that the essay question would be worth ten points - my thought 10 of 20. It just so happened that the principle's son was in that class and he thought 10 of 100, didn't want to write the essay and blew it off figuring he'd get a 90. Oh boy, so after I gave him an F, his mom (the principal) came down to my room. I remember her saying that she needed to take of her principal hat and put on her parent hat, but I can't remember how we resolved the whole issue. 
The second not funny one is from when I worked as a legal secretary. Actually the job was for the receptionist, but during my interview, the office manager told me they really needed another secretary and long story short - one of the underling secretaries got de-moted to receptionist and I was not her favorite person. So of course, she quit and I had to be the receptionist until they hired another one. (As a side, it is cruel to have a non-Spanish speaker answer phones in Miami.) One day for whatever reason I called this woman and somehow she was not who I intended to call. She was a super difficult person and I got very flustered and hung up on her without saying where I was calling from - she checked her caller ID and called me back and told me off. Yipee. I figured I would lose my job after that, but when my boss found out, he blew it off because he seemed to think that particular woman was annoying.
Of course the funny ones are from college! Every year our BSU (Baptist Student Union) had a Christmas banquet and everyone dressed up formally for the party. One particular year (either my junior or senior year) everyone seemed to be in an extra festive mood and one of the girls decided to have a party the following weekend - and she said it would also be fancy dress, which my roommate Autumn and friend Dana and I took seriously. Autumn, Dana and I dressed formal dresses and showed up at the party to find...everyone (EVERYONE) else in blue jeans. The best thing about all this was that I was not alone!!! And I think we may have left extraordinarily early. We may have gone back dressed down, but I evidently I blocked that part out!
Finally, this is my favorite, so I hope it makes sense! Our main dining hall on campus was always having special meals and one of the biggest was Mardi Gras. They really went all out. A few weeks after Mardi Gras, someone was looking through the campus newspaper and pointed out some quotes taken from the dining hall comment box. One of them read: "Mardi Gras was one of the greatest experiences of my life!" Which was hilarious until I saw that the person quoted was me! I sooooooo did not write that! No one admitted to signing my name to the card, and the whole thing remains a mystery to this day!
that mardi gras story made me laugh!
ReplyDeleteIt's really telling as to what sort of friends I had in college, isn't it ;)
ReplyDelete