Am I the Only Person Who Uses the "We'll Never See These People Again, So Who Really Cares?" Rationalization?

Am I the only person who sees someone on t.v....a character in a fictional situation...say a sitcom or movie...do something hideously embarrassing (though scripted) and start to squirm because I start to feel uncomfortable for them? Could it be that I do this because of the numerous times I myself have been too embarrassed to show my face for awhile...whether in front of perfect strangers or even worse...coworkers, acquaintances and friends?

Oh, the power of blogging! It's so easy to be oneself...or even better...the altar ego that one wishes they could be...because they aren't face to face with the readers they are talking to. This is one reason I feel free enough to share these tales of embarrassment with the world. I'll share just one or two at a time, to give me something to talk about if my creativity lags. Enjoy a laugh at my expense. I know I will!

embarrassing story #1:

The Dream Book

It was the end of a work day and I was sitting around in the front office, which is my office, talking to my coworker, Bipsy, and two male coworkers. We all started talking about our dreams...if we dream and if so, how often and what kind of dreams we have. We took turns sharing about recurring dreams we've had and our strangest dreams, and so on.

During this conversation, I suddenly remembered that in my drawer was a book I had recently received from a book club that I hadn't even opened yet. It was a book that was supposed to help interpret what dreams meant.

I got the book out and started looking up what my coworkers' dreams indicated. At that point, the book seemed fun and pretty interesting.

Then I remembered a dream I had just a few nights prior to that day. I proceeded to go in to detail about the dream. I had the book closed, and announced that I would look up what the dream meant after I laid out the details of my dream.

In the dream, I explained, I was approaching a house. On the ground were snakes everywhere. There were snakes crawling up my legs and I kept knocking them off. I indicated that I was not afraid of these snakes, I simply knew they were there and I was okay with them. I was only knocking them off because I was trying to make my way to the house, and they were impeding my progress.

I continued by saying that in the dream I knew there was a huge anaconda-like snake in that house that I had to get. Only this snake was like the anacondas in the Hollywood movies, not like the real anacondas found in the wild. It was important to me to get in the house and remove the snake, though I wasn't sure why this was my unspoken mission. I wasn't afraid, just anxious to get the task at hand completed. Finally, I grabbed the huge snake and put it around my neck. The dream ended with me knowing I accomplished my task at hand.

Having outlined the dream sequence, I opened the book and found "snakes" in the index.

I began to read aloud, and though the exact words (or even the name of the book) are unclear, the paragraph read something like this:

"Snakes or a fascination with snakes in a dream indicate that either on a conscious or subconscious level the subject has unfulfilled and pent up sexual energy that needs to be released. Snakes represent sexual passion. A person who dreams of snakes frequently may be working out their intense sexual desires in their dream life."

Needless to say, even in the middle of reading this, I was turning fifteen shades of red. I hesitated to finish, but by then, the poo had already hit the fan. Everyone was cracking up laughing, and I was quickly doing damage control, trying to dismiss the author as a fraud and a phony. This, coming from a woman, who, just minutes before, was claiming that the author was right on target regarding dream interpretation.

Oh boy! More stories to follow.