December 13, 2008

Can you say "Awkward"?

There are not many things that can literally make me feel awkward or uncomfortable, for the most part. However, yesterday afternoon at work, I found myself in perhaps one of the most awkward moments ever!

For your sake, let me tell you about where I work. I basically am a janitor at a private Christian school in Lexington. The school uses a large majority of the same buildings as the church that it is run out of. Thus, spaces such as the fellowship hall, are also used as the lunch room for the school, etc...

Yesterday evening the church was hosting some sort of Christmas program. Therefore my co-worker and I got there early and began cleaning so that we would be out of the way and gone before their program began. I had finished collecting and taking out all of the trash and had begun vacuuming the classrooms. As I work, (walking around the school for three hours a day) I usually have my ipod playing. Thus, if someone wants to get my attention while I am vacuuming, they usually have to get pretty close to me.

So I turned around and noticed a guy, probably close to my age, standing at the door of the classroom trying to get my attention. I stopped vacuuming and took out my earphones and he asked if I knew how to tie a tie. He was trying to get ready for the evening program and needed some help. I went into the bathroom to use the mirror and tied his tie around my neck. It would have been very awkward to tie the tie around his neck. He was telling me how large he wanted the knot to be and other random things, such as where he was from, where he worked, and why he was needing my help with the tie. He was asking me similar questions, even though he never even asked my name.

Here comes the awkward part. As we were walking out of the bathroom, he told me thanks one more time and I assured him it wasn't a problem. At this point, I assumed our interaction was complete and headed back to my vacuum. That is when I heard him say this:

"By the way, you have a really nice a#%." (butt)

Wow. Really? I mean even if he were gay and was trying to hit on me, I could have possibly taken that as a compliment. But I was wearing some rather baggy jeans and we were standing in the hallway of a church / Christian school. And he was there to run a Christmas program. Moreover, it honestly did not appear like he was trying to hit on me at all. It felt very much like a straightforward comment followed by nothing, except him standing there looking at me for what I assume was his waiting on my response.

What should my response have been? I don't know. But I just nodded, put my earphones back in, and returned to the vacuum.

I know plenty of homosexual guys, but very few have ever hit on me or tried to flirt with me. So it would seem normal that I would have been caught a little off guard. But seriously! Did that just happen? What just happen? That is all I could think. I just kept laughing while I finished working and have gotten quite a few laughs from friends whom I've shared this experience with.

What an awkward day. I hope you find this to be as funny and awkward as I did. May you find humor, laughter, and many memories in the awkward situations you find yourself in. Whether you are creating them or just experiencing them, I hope you laugh.

1 comment:

karlee said...

hahaha. not THE laugh. but definitely A laugh