outed as a nerd/idiot
December 8, 2007My roommate gave me my x-mas present yesterday…
So of course, I figured I’d wear it around today. And it just so happened that I went to the grocery store up north to buy groceries today. As I was checking out from the grocery store, the cashier asked me if I had my Jewel card and then he said something that I took to be kind of half to himself. It was only about a minute later when I finally realized what he said was “fullmetal.” And then it was another thirty seconds or so before I realized he was talking about my shirt. Of course by then he had just kind of acted like he hadn’t said anything and I decided it was best not to reveal my stupidity by blurting out “Ooooh! You meant my shirt!! You know, when you said ‘Fullmetal’ about two minutes ago and I just kinda ignored you since I had no idea what you were talking about, even though I’m the one wearing the shirt, so you would think I would have picked up on that a little faster than I did. Yeah, FMA rocks. Thanks man. Don’t mind me just being a tool over here.” So there you have it. Not even a full 24 hours that I’ve had this thing and I’ve already managed to make myself look either like a total idiot or like a total bitch to some poor cashier at Jewel. Doh!
I do that wearing my Poe t-shirt, too…if people would just be sensible (to Wonko) & quote Poe or something, I’d probably be able to realize that’s who they’re talking about. But if they say stuff like, “Oh, I like him too!”, I generally don’t know what they’re talking about, until they point to me. Come on, you expect me to remember/realize I’m wearing a shirt with a 6″ diameter head of Poe on the front?
Comment by Redking — December 17, 2007 @ 11:35 am
Yeah, something similar happened to me before Christmas. I was at Penney’s buying long underwear for my mother (yes i know, just pray i never give YOU a Christmas present) and the cashier said, “She forgot her receipt.” So I just smiled and stood there, expecting her to ring up my items. But instead, she stared back at me, and did nothing, for a long, long time. I began to get irritated and was unsure what to do. Finally, after a long, uncomfortable silence, she asked, “Did you want a gift receipt?” which was apparently what she said the first time, and immediately after she said it i realized that was what she had said the first time, and felt compelled to explain, “oh, yes - I thought you said, ’she forgot her receipt.’” Then i was embarrassed for being seemingly crazy for having misheard, so i laughed nervously and maniacally and incessantly at her until she was done nervously ringing up my items. Perhaps that is the strategy you should employ next time: act completely insane until the person feels that there is nothing wrong with them. Although it isn’t the best strategy for one’s self-esteem.
Comment by Sam — December 28, 2007 @ 6:42 pm