embarrassment and stories...

Here is Chart to Rate embarrassment level: "That's Embarrassing"

1. Not at all.
2. Some blushing.
3. Red Face for the whole day.
4. Paper bag over your head.
5. Crawl into a hole and die.

Our next story slam is on January 11th and the theme is embarrassment. So I have been ruminating on this topic.  Embarrassment is not the same as shame - right? I am ashamed of bad things I've done but merely embarrassed by the dumb and ridiculous things I've said and done. Usually, embarrassing things only hurt me. And telling and laughing about them is like laughing when one does something really klutzy and painful but, u...ltimately, survivable ( it is a word?) - know what I mean? The source of much of my humor/laughter is the surprise and delight that I am- after all my stupidity, still alive.

My sister said" Don't be ridiculous! People who are truly embarrassed would never tell a story about it." I have to wonder. Perhaps she is right? The embarrassment must be epic to even penetrate an extrovert's mind. And even then it is but a momentary pinch and then immediately transformed into material for a story. As someone who is "frequently wrong, but never in doubt," I suffer many such pinches as I stagger through this life. What do you think ? Must one have a "Jane Austen-esque" sense of propriety to be embarrassed? Or can the Joy Behar/Wanda Sykes types among us also feel embarrassed?

Here are some fun stories at a site called "That's Embarrassing" 

            We lived in a split-level home. My oldest brother came in and went downstairs to the den and sat down. I grabbed a book of matches, ran downstairs, did a baseball slide on the floor and started to roll backwards with my keester sticking straight up in the air. I struck a match, lit a fart, and then I sat up laughing just like the Beavis and Butthead type I truly was. However, instead of laughing, my brother looked like he could kill me.

"I want you to turn around and apologize to her right now!", he yelled. Uh oh! I turned and looked at the corner behind the stairs and there sat a girl he had brought home to meet the family. I've never seen such a confused, disgusted look on anyone's face before or since. Well, now she's my sister-in-law of over thirty years and we still laugh about it from time to time

         My bladder has a very regular schedule, i always have to go pee when i wake up. around 3, around 7 and before i go to bed. Some times more when i really have to go, but thats very rare. One day my alarm didn't go off and i was late for school. I hadn't had a chance to go before i got to school and i couldn't go during school because none of my teachers let me. And i couldn't go during a brake because the girls room was flooded with desperate girls with bursting bladders because it was school that you could only relieve your bladder during the 1 BREAK in the late afternoon!! And EVERY BODY had to go by then.

Besides even if i could get in there the girls bathrooms are so dirty with all kinds of used pads and stuff. So my bladder fills more and more through out the day, break comes and i stand in line, but don't get to go in time. I was amazed that i had held it for that long! i went to my next class and asked my teacher to go and told her it was an extreme emergency and that i was bursting. I even crossed my legs to add drama. She said it was just after break and she couldn't let me go. I sat down but i knew it wouldn't be long before i wet. My bladder wasn't used to waiting that long and me not peeing at the usual hours. by the time class was over i was dyeing and everyone knew it, as i was almost in tears. I stood up, barely holding on, and picked up my books. I was half way across the room when a massive wave of pressure hit me and my poor bladder burst! I dropped my books and held myself but i couldn't stop the flow! I was completely flooding the room there was so much pee! Eventually i was empty and the teacher said she was sorry and she didn't realize i had to go that badly. I just walked out This wasn't all that rare for my high school because we can only go once a day late, when you walk by the bathrooms sometimes you see a desperate girl with a bursting bladder wet her panties. I was laughed at for a long time though...

JAN 11  @ MON Kennedys in Boston Cohosts ToRena Webb + Andrea Lovett
"so embarrassing"
JAN 31  @ SUN Enormous Room  Cambridge -  cohosts Doria Hughes/Will Luera director of Improv Boston
"it's relative"
FEB 14  @ SUN Ryles in Cambridge  cohosts Laura Packer and Ian Thal
errors in eros"
FEB 22  @ MON Kennedys in Boston
"TBA"
MAR 15 @ MON Kennedys in Boston TBA
"blarney is irish for bs" outrageous stories - true or otherwise
MAR 21 @ SUN Ryles in Cambridge Kevin Brooks cohosts
"TBA"
APR 20 @ TUE Copley Library  Boston Slam of all Slams! and slam season ends
"TBA"

until next OCTOBER when it all starts again...

All the details are at massmouth.com including -
how to get a spot in the line up:
http://massmouth.ning.com/forum/topics/ways-to-tell-at-a-slamnew
where the events are, times and admission and all that good stuff:
http://massmouth.ning.com/events
the grand prize explained:
http://massmouth.ning.com/forum/topics/grand-prize-big-slam-4202010
more pictures, general news and verbiage at
http://massmouth.blogspot.com/