If I got a penny for every time something awkward or incredibly stupid happened to me, I would be on Forbes as the wealthiest / weirdest woman alive.
And this isn't one of those cute awkward stories. When you mix the ultimate awkwardness with shyness, insecurity, anxiety and clumsiness, you get the opposite of cute. You get ME! The amount of awkward situations I've got myself into is just ridiculous and I'm not sure what to blame. Is it me? Is it my fear of human interactions and lack of social skills? That can't be right... So the question remains - WHY ME?!
I'm not even going to list all the times I've tripped or knocked something over by simply being me. There was that one time I fell and laughed at a funeral, but people just assumed I fainted from all the emotions and were super nice to me and told me to sit.
There was that time in Paris when a guy in McDonalds opened the trash can lid for me. I thought he was being super polite, so I poured my trash in, said the one word I knew in French - Merci - and walked away. As it turns out, his phone was on his plate and he had dropped it in with his trash, so he was about to fish it out. But instead he had to watch me pour my trash on top of his phone, smile, thank him and walk away.
I am SO AWKWARD, I don't even know how to politely interact with people. I had a job interview on the phone and at the end of it, the guy said - thank you for your time, Ms. - to which I replied with - you're welcome. ONLY BECAUSE he kept calling me Ms. and was so formal and polite the whole time, I'm not used to it.
Okay, as I'm writing this, I get the feeling that it might be mostly my own fault. It's still debatable...
However, the surprising encounter this morning tops all of those above mentioned cases.
For the past 3 weeks, the apartment above ours has been under construction. Since I work from home, it's been a real nightmare, trying to translate under a constant noise. Then about a week ago, one of the workers told us that the water pipes in the bathroom have to be changed, so - some time in near future - they will work in our bathroom as well. No one said when exactly, no one said how long it will take, no one said anything. This morning, when Brian had left for work, I decided to sleep some more and get up around 9am. As I was drooling on my pillow, all snuggly in dream land, I got woken up by the sound of 3 male voices inside the apartment. The bedroom door was not fully shut, so I could hear them loud and clear. I got the courage to let out a quiet "hello?", to which all 3 men responded immediately. One of them shut the bedroom door, the other kept saying "oh my gosh", and the 3rd one said: "We told you we'll have to change the pipes! We knocked, but no one answered the door, so we let ourselves in!"
Now, I might come from a 2nd world country, but even there things are not handled this way. In my opinion, (correct me if I'm wrong) they should have come to us yesterday and told us that they're coming today. Not just knock a couple times at 8am and barge into someone's apartment without a warning.
Of course all the guys are really nice and I can laugh about it now, but this morning I was not that happy about this whole situation. And the worst part is, I don't speak German that well, so I have no idea what they're telling me. I don't know how long they'll be here, I don't know how long it will take to change the pipes, I don't know if we can use the bathroom... AND I REALLY NEED TO PEE!!!
I hope you're all having a better day.
I think I need a drink.
-B-
