Memories

<p>Shameful memories are like red wine stains&mdash;so easy to create, and yet so difficult to erase. Nothing clings to the brain quite like the memory of something embarrassing we did or said weeks, months, or even years ago.</p><h2>In a popular Reddit thread, people <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskWomen/comments/jtxp3j/what_is_your_embarrassing_thing_you_did_memory/" target="_blank">answered</a> the question: &quot;What is your &#39;embarrassing thing you did&#39; memory that keeps you up at night or randomly makes you curl up in fetal position in the shower when you think of it?&quot;</h2><p>1.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/jdgwife/">jdgwife</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>When I was in my 20&rsquo;s, I was a single mom working as a receptionist at a HUGE law firm. As such, I dealt with anyone and everyone coming in and out of the main entrance. Well, one day I realized that a courier business the law firm used was owned by a guy I graduated high school with. This guy was one of the popular, good looking, perfect kids in school. I didn&rsquo;t know him personally back in high school but I knew of him bc he was a popular kid.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>We made small talk for a bit at the front desk. At one point, he asked me for a &ldquo;card with your name and number&rdquo; on it. I said I didn&rsquo;t have business cards but I could write the number down for him. I wrote down my own name and my own number, assuming Mr Popular wanted to ask me out. When I handed him the paper the sudden look on his face of pure confusement was horribly apparent. He wanted a company business card, not MY number! He was too polite to say anything other than, &ldquo;thanks&rdquo; before leaving. And I was too mortified to say anything else to correct what I had misunderstood. Haunts me to this day.</p> </blockquote><p>2.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/3v3r9r33n/">3v3r9r33n</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>When I was around 10 or 11 my dad took me to a football match (I&#39;m in the UK, so soccer to some of you) and it was freezing cold, I hadn&#39;t taken a coat but I was wearing a pretty loose hoodie. At some point, I decided it would be warmer to put my feet up on my seat and put my hoodie over my knees. I sat like that for a while and then my butt started to go numb from sitting on the hard plastic chair, so I kinda shuffled around a bit, lost my balance, and tipped forward in my seat.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>Normally it would be fine, you just put your feet down to stop yourself falling, right? Well I still had my hoodie over my legs and so when I tried to put my feet down I couldn&#39;t; my knees were stuck. I tipped forward and landed directly between the two seats in front, which were occupied by a man and his young son, who was so startled by the sudden appearance of my head that he promptly jumped about 6in out of his chair and threw his chips everywhere. I was wriggling around trying to free my knees from my hoodie while my dad was angrily saying &quot;(my name) what the hell are you doing? Get up! GET. UP.&quot; and I&#39;m still wiggling, shouting &quot;I can&#39;t! I&#39;m stuck! Help me!&quot;</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>Eventually the guy sat in front realised I genuinely needed help and pushed me up while my dad unhooked my legs from my hoodie and then I sat and drowned in my own shame for the rest of the match. Hilarious, really, but it still makes me cringe when I think about it.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>3.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/BlueberryBitch91/">BlueberryBitch91</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>I remember once lying on the grass with a couple of friends when we saw some shooting stars, I asked everyone what they wish for and after everyone gave answers they asked me what I would wish for when I said &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t make wishes, I make things happen&rsquo;. It still makes me cringe haha</p> </blockquote><p>4.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/citylights_/">citylights_</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>I was at the Apple store and I was in a rush. I had an appointment I needed to get to and I hadn&rsquo;t managed my time well. The store was packed. I think it was close to Christmas. I started to rush out of the store, while simultaneously trying to give people the appropriate space, but apple stores suck when they&rsquo;re crowded. I thought I&rsquo;d finally made it free and clear but I ran into a ten year old kid and he fell over onto his back. It didn&rsquo;t fully register to me that he&rsquo;d fallen, only that I&rsquo;d bumped into him, so I kept going and called out an apology as I rushed out the door. I STILL think about the fact that I didn&rsquo;t stop to help him up.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>5.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/parezcounapina/">parezcounapina</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>I used to live in Spain. When I first arrived, my Spanish wasn&rsquo;t great so I decided what better way to improve than to download Tinder. Matched with this guy and had a good chat. We had even moved the conversation from Tinder to WhatsApp.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>We were talking about tattoos and I mentioned that I had 6 of them, the most recent one being on my foot. He said that was cool and the conversation kept going. I had mentioned in my Tinder bio that I was very tall (183cm or 6&rsquo;0). He said that that was so cool and could I send him a picture of myself standing up so he could see how tall I was. Unfortunately, the Spanish expression for &ldquo;standing up&rdquo; is &ldquo;estar de pie&rdquo;. It literally means &ldquo;to be on foot&rdquo;. I didn&rsquo;t know this and just saw the word &ldquo;pie&rdquo; which means &ldquo;foot&rdquo;. I assumed he wanted to see a picture of the tattoo on my foot.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>I thought it was a bit weird that he was asking to see the tattoo a full 10-15 minutes after the subject had changed, but I reluctantly obliged and sent this unsuspecting Spanish guy a picture of my FOOT WITH ZERO CONTEXT. He replied with a question mark and &ldquo;this is not what I was expecting.&rdquo; I don&rsquo;t think he believed me when I tried to explain what happened.</p> <p>I wanted to die. Alfonso, if you&rsquo;re reading this (which you probably aren&rsquo;t because you don&rsquo;t speak English), I&rsquo;m sorry. I misunderstood. Please don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m a weirdo.</p> </blockquote><p>6.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/-ladykitsune-/">-ladykitsune-</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>At my first job (I was 15 at the time) one of the older ladies had brought in a cake as it was her birthday. She proudly asked people to guess her age.</p> <p>Most people were graceful enough to say 40, some even said she didn&rsquo;t look a day over 30.</p> <p>Me, being socially unaware and bluntly honest like a kid, blurted out &ldquo;80!&rdquo;</p> <p>She was 50 😰</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>7.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Tumblrist/">Tumblrist</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>When I was younger, i had worked at a movie theater. It was the end of my shift so i was in the staff room with a few colleagues. I was exhausted and zoned out that i accidentally started to unbutton my uniform in front of them. As i felt the cold breeze on my chest is when i realized i flashed my colleagues. Good thing only one of them accidentally saw it lol. Will never forgive myself for that lol.</p> </blockquote><p>8.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/abby_cello/">abby_cello</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>Two stories:</p> <p>Was taking the ACT standardized test in high school. The room was completely silent, and then I sneezed and let out a good-sized fart at the same time. Everyone in the room heard.</p> <p>Second most embarrassing: recently I accidentally sent my new boss a lewd picture of my cleavage. Luckily she was understanding and we laughed about it.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>9.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Teefdreams/">Teefdreams</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>My boyfriend and my friend&#39;s dad were wearing an almost exactly identical outfit.<br /> Guess whose a*s I slapped in front of everyone at her 21st birthday party?</p> </blockquote><p>10.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/_salemsaberhagen/">_salemsaberhagen</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>At my last job, our office had a Bluetooth speaker in it. Well I had used it a few days prior and never made my phone forget the device. One day I was in the bathroom and I was scrolling through Timehop, which compiles your phone and social media &ldquo;memories&rdquo; from that date every year. Well I was scrolling down and came to a video from 7 years ago that was dark. I couldn&rsquo;t tell what it was. I tried turning it all the way up but there was also no sound. I played it for a solid 20 seconds before realizing it was a sex video my husband and I had made. Then, I felt my soul leave my body when I saw the little icon in the corner of the screen indicating it had automatically connected to the speaker. Not only did I play my sex tape for my supervisor, but I even turned it up for him.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>11.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/thegrlwiththesqurl/">thegrlwiththesqurl</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>Oh boy. When I was in middle school, I had a Latin teacher who was very young, like 20. Obviously I had a massive crush. Lots of red faced times in Latin class. I was OBSESSED to the point where I would post statuses on Facebook about stuff I knew he liked (like he went to China every summer so I said something about how I really wanted some Chinese food?? WTF?) and totally changed my personality to try becoming a celebrity I knew he was a fan of. I constantly stalked him online and devised schemes for getting him to like me. Now I&#39;m convinced I deleted my Facebook just to get rid of those memories lmao.</p> </blockquote><p>12.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/thelionmermaid/">thelionmermaid</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>I appeared on a Korean TV show in which contestants impersonate a famous singer, and even though I had vocal chord nodules and thought other contestants were way better than me, I gave into the writing team&#39;s coaxing and stayed on board.</p> <p>It was filmed in front of an audience that gets to vote, and I got voted off in the first round with highest number of votes in the history of the show. My brows looked awful too. It was overall one of the most embarrassing episodes of my life.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>13.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/BooksAndStarsLover/">BooksAndStarsLover</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>In 6th grade me and my best friend got invited to the popular kids table where my crush sat. We were joking around and having fun eatting hot lunch when my other friend came up and grabbed my hips as I took a big old drink of chocolate milk. To say the least I ended up spewing it all over my crush and his friends.</p> </blockquote><p>14.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/kathatter75/">kathatter75</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>When I was 13 or 14 and (what I thought) playfully hit a youth group counselor in the arm while we were joking around. Later, my dad had a talk with me because, as he put it, I&rsquo;m a lot stronger than I realize, and I&rsquo;d given the guy a bruise. I was mortified...he was one of my favorite people, and here I am, beating the guy up. I&rsquo;m 45, and still think about it.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>15.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Erinelephant/">Erinelephant</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>Got food poisoning the morning after a 1 night stand. I threw up on his floor while he held a Tupperware container under me and I ran naked through his apartment (he had roommates)</p> </blockquote><p>16.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Stainedglasslass/">Stainedglasslass</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>One time at a wedding I spilled a glass of red wine on a bride&rsquo;s beautiful, expensive dress. Everyone gasped when it happened.</p> </blockquote><p>17.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ldebb/">ldebb</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>So a few months after my husband and I were married, my mother-in-law and I were sitting by a pool reading. I was reading some tawdry smut romance novel, and came to a word I didn&rsquo;t know. This was before the rise of smart phones, so instead of looking up the word, I turned and asked my new very conservative Christian mother-in-law what the word &ldquo;cuckold&rdquo; means. Her face turned purple and I immediately realized I&rsquo;d made a mistake. After some awkward throat clearing and polite coughing on her end, she excused herself to go to the bathroom without answering and I ran into the apartment to look it up...and almost died. I don&rsquo;t think I looked her in the eyes for like three years after that one.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>18.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MezzanineFloor/">MezzanineFloor</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>This was only a week ago but I die inside every time it crosses my mind, which is a lot. I had a job interview and the interviewer was showing me out at the end we were at the door and she said &ldquo;goodbye&rdquo; and I said &ldquo;thank you, bye&rdquo; and she said goodbye again and I was like &ldquo;ok bye&rdquo; and she said goodbye again and and it went back and forth for a bit until I realised she had her hand out waiting for me to shake it back. Ughhhhhhhhh. Why am I like this? I generally don&rsquo;t enjoy physical contact so I guess I just forgot this etiquette. But also, I thought handshaking was out now in COVID times. She offered me the job the next day so you&rsquo;d think this would alleviate my anxieties over this exchange but no, now I wonder if I&rsquo;ll ever interact normally with her again.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><p>19.) From <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/GasolineParfait/">GasolineParfait</a>:</p><blockquote> <p>In high school I once said this to a substitute teacher:</p> <p>&quot;You have the same last name as a teacher from my middle school. He was kind of a creepy pervert though...&quot; and went on relaying speculation and gossip until the sub finally told me &quot;Yeah, that&#39;s my dad.&quot;</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div>

19 people share their most embarrassing memory that still keeps them up at night.

Shameful memories are like red wine stains&mdash;so easy to create, and yet so difficult to erase. Nothing clings to the brain quite like the memory of something embarrassing we did or said weeks, months, or even years ago.In a popular Reddit thread, people answered the question: &quot;What is your &#39;embarrassing thing you did&#39; memory that keeps you up at night or randomly makes you curl up in fetal position in the shower when you think of it?&quot;1.) From jdgwife: When I was in my 20&rsquo;s, I was a single mom working as a receptionist at a HUGE law firm. As such, I dealt with anyone and everyone coming in and out of the main entrance. Well, one day I realized that a courier business the law firm used was owned by a guy I graduated high school with. This guy was one of the popular, good looking, perfect kids in school. I didn&rsquo;t know him personally back in high school but I knew of him bc he was a popular kid.  We made small talk for a bit at the front desk. At one point, he asked me for a &ldquo;card with your name and number&rdquo; on it. I said I didn&rsquo;t have business cards but I could write the number down for him. I wrote down my own name and my own number, assuming Mr Popular wanted to ask me out. When I handed him the paper the sudden look on his face of pure confusement was horribly apparent. He wanted a company business card, not MY number! He was too polite to say anything other than, &ldquo;thanks&rdquo; before leaving. And I was too mortified to say anything else to correct what I had misunderstood. Haunts me to this day. 2.) From 3v3r9r33n: When I was around 10 or 11 my dad took me to a football match (I&#39;m in the UK, so soccer to some of you) and it was freezing cold, I hadn&#39;t taken a coat but I was wearing a pretty loose hoodie. At some point, I decided it would be warmer to put my feet up on my seat and put my hoodie over my knees. I sat like that for a while and then my butt started to go numb from sitting on the hard plastic chair, so I kinda shuffled around a bit, lost my balance, and tipped forward in my seat.  Normally it would be fine, you just put your feet down to stop yourself falling, right? Well I still had my hoodie over my legs and so when I tried to put my feet down I couldn&#39;t; my knees were stuck. I tipped forward and landed directly between the two seats in front, which were occupied by a man and his young son, who was so startled by the sudden appearance of my head that he promptly jumped about 6in out of his chair and threw his chips everywhere. I was wriggling around trying to free my knees from my hoodie while my dad was angrily saying &quot;(my name) what the hell are you doing? Get up! GET. UP.&quot; and I&#39;m still wiggling, shouting &quot;I can&#39;t! I&#39;m stuck! Help me!&quot;  Eventually the guy sat in front realised I genuinely needed help and pushed me up while my dad unhooked my legs from my hoodie and then I sat and drowned in my own shame for the rest of the match. Hilarious, really, but it still makes me cringe when I think about it. 3.) From BlueberryBitch91: I remember once lying on the grass with a couple of friends when we saw some shooting stars, I asked everyone what they wish for and after everyone gave answers they asked me what I would wish for when I said &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t make wishes, I make things happen&rsquo;. It still makes me cringe haha 4.) From citylights_: I was at the Apple store and I was in a rush. I had an appointment I needed to get to and I hadn&rsquo;t managed my time well. The store was packed. I think it was close to Christmas. I started to rush out of the store, while simultaneously trying to give people the appropriate space, but apple stores suck when they&rsquo;re crowded. I thought I&rsquo;d finally made it free and clear but I ran into a ten year old kid and he fell over onto his back. It didn&rsquo;t fully register to me that he&rsquo;d fallen, only that I&rsquo;d bumped into him, so I kept going and called out an apology as I rushed out the door. I STILL think about the fact that I didn&rsquo;t stop to help him up. 5.) From parezcounapina: I used to live in Spain. When I first arrived, my Spanish wasn&rsquo;t great so I decided what better way to improve than to download Tinder. Matched with this guy and had a good chat. We had even moved the conversation from Tinder to WhatsApp.  We were talking about tattoos and I mentioned that I had 6 of them, the most recent one being on my foot. He said that was cool and the conversation kept going. I had mentioned in my Tinder bio that I was very tall (183cm or 6&rsquo;0). He said that that was so cool and could I send him a picture of myself standing up so he could see how tall I was. Unfortunately, the Spanish expression for &ldquo;standing up&rdquo; is &ldquo;estar de pie&rdquo;. It literally means &ldquo;to be on foot&rdquo;. I didn&rsquo;t know this and just saw the word &ldquo;pie&rdquo; which means &ldquo;foot&rdquo;. I assumed he wanted to see a picture of the tattoo on my foot.  I thought it was a bit weird that he was asking to see the tattoo a full 10-15 minutes after the subject had changed, but I reluctantly obliged and sent this unsuspecting Spanish guy a picture of my FOOT WITH ZERO CONTEXT. He replied with a question mark and &ldquo;this is not what I was expecting.&rdquo; I don&rsquo;t think he believed me when I tried to explain what happened. I wanted to die. Alfonso, if you&rsquo;re reading this (which you probably aren&rsquo;t because you don&rsquo;t speak English), I&rsquo;m sorry. I misunderstood. Please don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;m a weirdo. 6.) From -ladykitsune-: At my first job (I was 15 at the time) one of the older ladies had brought in a cake as it was her birthday. She proudly asked people to guess her age. Most people were graceful enough to say 40, some even said she didn&rsquo;t look a day over 30. Me, being socially unaware and bluntly honest like a kid, blurted out &ldquo;80!&rdquo; She was 50 😰 7.) From Tumblrist: When I was younger, i had worked at a movie theater. It was the end of my shift so i was in the staff room with a few colleagues. I was exhausted and zoned out that i accidentally started to unbutton my uniform in front of them. As i felt the cold breeze on my chest is when i realized i flashed my colleagues. Good thing only one of them accidentally saw it lol. Will never forgive myself for that lol. 8.) From abby_cello: Two stories: Was taking the ACT standardized test in high school. The room was completely silent, and then I sneezed and let out a good-sized fart at the same time. Everyone in the room heard. Second most embarrassing: recently I accidentally sent my new boss a lewd picture of my cleavage. Luckily she was understanding and we laughed about it. 9.) From Teefdreams: My boyfriend and my friend&#39;s dad were wearing an almost exactly identical outfit. Guess whose a*s I slapped in front of everyone at her 21st birthday party? 10.) From _salemsaberhagen: At my last job, our office had a Bluetooth speaker in it. Well I had used it a few days prior and never made my phone forget the device. One day I was in the bathroom and I was scrolling through Timehop, which compiles your phone and social media &ldquo;memories&rdquo; from that date every year. Well I was scrolling down and came to a video from 7 years ago that was dark. I couldn&rsquo;t tell what it was. I tried turning it all the way up but there was also no sound. I played it for a solid 20 seconds before realizing it was a sex video my husband and I had made. Then, I felt my soul leave my body when I saw the little icon in the corner of the screen indicating it had automatically connected to the speaker. Not only did I play my sex tape for my supervisor, but I even turned it up for him. 11.) From thegrlwiththesqurl: Oh boy. When I was in middle school, I had a Latin teacher who was very young, like 20. Obviously I had a massive crush. Lots of red faced times in Latin class. I was OBSESSED to the point where I would post statuses on Facebook about stuff I knew he liked (like he went to China every summer so I said something about how I really wanted some Chinese food?? WTF?) and totally changed my personality to try becoming a celebrity I knew he was a fan of. I constantly stalked him online and devised schemes for getting him to like me. Now I&#39;m convinced I deleted my Facebook just to get rid of those memories lmao. 12.) From thelionmermaid: I appeared on a Korean TV show in which contestants impersonate a famous singer, and even though I had vocal chord nodules and thought other contestants were way better than me, I gave into the writing team&#39;s coaxing and stayed on board. It was filmed in front of an audience that gets to vote, and I got voted off in the first round with highest number of votes in the history of the show. My brows looked awful too. It was overall one of the most embarrassing episodes of my life. 13.) From BooksAndStarsLover: In 6th grade me and my best friend got invited to the popular kids table where my crush sat. We were joking around and having fun eatting hot lunch when my other friend came up and grabbed my hips as I took a big old drink of chocolate milk. To say the least I ended up spewing it all over my crush and his friends. 14.) From kathatter75: When I was 13 or 14 and (what I thought) playfully hit a youth group counselor in the arm while we were joking around. Later, my dad had a talk with me because, as he put it, I&rsquo;m a lot stronger than I realize, and I&rsquo;d given the guy a bruise. I was mortified...he was one of my favorite people, and here I am, beating the guy up. I&rsquo;m 45, and still think about it. 15.) From Erinelephant: Got food poisoning the morning after a 1 night stand. I threw up on his floor while he held a Tupperware container under me and I ran naked through his apartment (he had roommates) 16.) From Stainedglasslass: One time at a wedding I spilled a glass of red wine on a bride&rsquo;s beautiful, expensive dress. Everyone gasped when it happened. 17.) From ldebb: So a few months after my husband and I were married, my mother-in-law and I were sitting by a pool reading. I was reading some tawdry smut romance novel, and came to a word I didn&rsquo;t know. This was before the rise of smart phones, so instead of looking up the word, I turned and asked my new very conservative Christian mother-in-law what the word &ldquo;cuckold&rdquo; means. Her face turned purple and I immediately realized I&rsquo;d made a mistake. After some awkward throat clearing and polite coughing on her end, she excused herself to go to the bathroom without answering and I ran into the apartment to look it up...and almost died. I don&rsquo;t think I looked her in the eyes for like three years after that one. 18.) From MezzanineFloor: This was only a week ago but I die inside every time it crosses my mind, which is a lot. I had a job interview and the interviewer was showing me out at the end we were at the door and she said &ldquo;goodbye&rdquo; and I said &ldquo;thank you, bye&rdquo; and she said goodbye again and I was like &ldquo;ok bye&rdquo; and she said goodbye again and and it went back and forth for a bit until I realised she had her hand out waiting for me to shake it back. Ughhhhhhhhh. Why am I like this? I generally don&rsquo;t enjoy physical contact so I guess I just forgot this etiquette. But also, I thought handshaking was out now in COVID times. She offered me the job the next day so you&rsquo;d think this would alleviate my anxieties over this exchange but no, now I wonder if I&rsquo;ll ever interact normally with her again. 19.) From GasolineParfait: In high school I once said this to a substitute teacher: &quot;You have the same last name as a teacher from my middle school. He was kind of a creepy pervert though...&quot; and went on relaying speculation and gossip until the sub finally told me &quot;Yeah, that&#39;s my dad.&quot; 

Shameful memories are like red wine stains&mdash;so easy to create, and yet so difficult to erase. Nothing clings to the brain quite like the memory of something embarrassing we did or said weeks, months, or even years ago.  In a popular...