i occasionally get lunch at one of these
http://www.flamersgrill.com/images/fl_logo.gif
in the mall by where i work and one of the dudes there knows my order. the first time he greeted me by saying my order i just wanted to quantum leap the hell out of there
― Roberto Spiralli, Monday, 10 December 2012 14:41 (eleven years ago) link
also the dude at the ben and jerrys in the same foodcourt started chatting to me one time and told me about his improv group and now i can't go back if he is there
― Roberto Spiralli, Monday, 10 December 2012 14:43 (eleven years ago) link
And then like, I'll want to buy something, but something small, but it's gotta be more than like 10 bucks because I never carry cash and I want to do a transaction that will make the Visa service fees worth it for them, but then I totally don't want to spend 10 bucks, so I end up making an excuse to wait out in the street.
― how's life, Monday, 10 December 2012 14:44 (eleven years ago) link
xp: LOL
― how's life, Monday, 10 December 2012 14:45 (eleven years ago) link
seeing nuns or priests in public places
it's like they can spot my unclean aura or something
― the oral history of (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Monday, 10 December 2012 14:47 (eleven years ago) link
When I was younger, I used to get so embarassed for people on television shows who were about to get in trouble.
still basically can't watch television because of this
― c sharp major, Monday, 10 December 2012 14:50 (eleven years ago) link
what i could never deal with was movies where the protagonist is blamed for/suspected of doing something wrong/evil/criminal/morally indefensible, but you, the viewer, are the only one who knows they are innocent/being framed/mistaken for someone else.
― the oral history of (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Monday, 10 December 2012 14:51 (eleven years ago) link
yeah I can relate to that one too. curb your enthusiasm is 100% constructed to fuck w/ this response, also. xp
― iatee, Monday, 10 December 2012 14:52 (eleven years ago) link
what i hate though is when someone is being blamed for something they didn't do, and yet for some reason they don't do anything to explain their innocence.
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Monday, 10 December 2012 14:54 (eleven years ago) link
xp My wife was the first person I met who had this reaction to television, specifically to George Costanza. I never understood it; "c'mon, it can't be that bad," etc. Then Curb Your Enthusiasm showed up and it suddenly made sense to me.
― xanthanguar (cwkiii), Monday, 10 December 2012 15:22 (eleven years ago) link
one of the cashiers at the local tesco has seemingly conflated me and another regular customer in her head, to the extent that i get anxious going there at the thought of having another awkward embarrassing conversation where i have to follow up on whatever she last discussed with him.
― Shane Richie Junior (Merdeyeux), Monday, 10 December 2012 15:24 (eleven years ago) link
corollary to that embarrassment - having people recognise me from tesco. three times now THREE TIMES i've met people at parties etc and they've said "hey do i see you around the lower clapton tesco?" and i just have to grimly accept that yes i'm the tesco guy.
The waistcoat I'm wearing today is slightly too short and the very end of my tie pokes out the bottom. It's a pink tie, and it's making me a little embarrassed.
― Ismael Klata, Monday, 10 December 2012 15:25 (eleven years ago) link
Tuck the tie back under itself imo. Did this for a wedding on sat, I'm rubbish at tie knots and the fat end always ends up being too long.
― ledge, Monday, 10 December 2012 15:28 (eleven years ago) link
Good idea. I had it tucked into my trousers, but it keeps springing loose and you can just imagine that at some point hilarious consequences will ensue.
― Ismael Klata, Monday, 10 December 2012 15:31 (eleven years ago) link
At my work no fucker acknowledges a held-open door; have occasionally even been glowered at as recipient passes through.
I get the glower from female co-workers occasionally. Also on several occasions have held the door for couples at e.g. a restaurant, to have the woman thank me while the man follows behind her, glowering.
― xanthanguar (cwkiii), Monday, 10 December 2012 15:31 (eleven years ago) link
one of the cashiers at the local tesco has seemingly conflated me and another regular customer in her head
The lady who used to cut my hair years ago had me conflated with someone else, too, and on one occasion asked "You like your hair like Christian Slater's, right?"
― xanthanguar (cwkiii), Monday, 10 December 2012 15:33 (eleven years ago) link
ha. did you truly appreciate the embarrassing nature of the situation and go along with it?
(i'm now feeling slight embarrassment seeing the pointless 'in her head' in that sentence.)
― Shane Richie Junior (Merdeyeux), Monday, 10 December 2012 15:34 (eleven years ago) link
I wish I did! I get too nervous in situations like that; I pretty much just stammered "No, that's not me" or something like that. Also, she was pretty bad at cutting hair so I'm not sure that I would have wanted her to make me look like Christian Slater.
― xanthanguar (cwkiii), Monday, 10 December 2012 16:12 (eleven years ago) link
Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City speaking Spanish
― Josefa, Monday, 10 December 2012 17:07 (eleven years ago) link
spiralli otm -- I kind of wanted to die when the Wendy's drive-thru cashier said 'Hi!' in a manner that signified that she now recognized me
shame spiral in 3 2 1
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 10 December 2012 18:14 (eleven years ago) link
Someone on my fb recently posted about running into an acquaintance over and over again on different aisles at the grocery store. Or there's also when you run into an acquaintance you don't really like talking to over and over at the same place and you have to do the whole "yep. we're both here again" thing.
― emilys., Wednesday, 12 December 2012 02:30 (eleven years ago) link
― Josefa, Monday, December 10, 2012 12:07 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
OTM
― drunk 'n' white's elements of style (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 12 December 2012 02:35 (eleven years ago) link
Kraftwerk's Technopop
― ledge, Thursday, 13 December 2012 15:41 (eleven years ago) link
When I was a kid, the only reason I started referring to my step dad as ” dad” was because I couldn't bring myself to say his name (lex). For whatever reason, I just found the idea of saying it aloud utterly mortifying.
I spent about 2 years calling him ” you”, before I realized ” dad” was a little less awkward.
― just1n3, Thursday, 13 December 2012 15:49 (eleven years ago) link
Kraftwerk's Technopop― ledge, Thursday, 13 December 2012 15:41 (55 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― ledge, Thursday, 13 December 2012 15:41 (55 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Why? It's like the others..
― Mark G, Thursday, 13 December 2012 16:37 (eleven years ago) link
except for lack of catchy tunes, high quotient of dated samples, Ralf singing about his sex life.
― ledge, Thursday, 13 December 2012 16:51 (eleven years ago) link
I dunno, the kids were going "boom -TCHACK!!" for weeks afterwards...
― Mark G, Thursday, 13 December 2012 16:58 (eleven years ago) link
It's an embarrassing album for sure but it's embarrassing in all the best ways
― frogbs, Thursday, 13 December 2012 17:03 (eleven years ago) link
When I was younger, I used to get so embarassed for people on television shows who were about to get in trouble. I can't think of any concrete examples, but like, if the Fresh Prince was doing something he wasn't supposed to, like snooping in someone else's stuff or something, and we in the audience were clued in to the fact that he was about to get busted for it. I would get beet-red flushed to the point where I'd have to turn off the TV or leave the room.
I know the feeling and to be honest this is why I really find it difficult to watch Curb Your Enthusiasm sometimes, it's one of those shows that makes me physically uncomfortable, I can't stop thinking "just drop it, Larry!" over and over again. Which sucks because I know how damn funny it is.
― frogbs, Thursday, 13 December 2012 17:04 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah I can't do it either. It's just not funny for me, I start blushing and having hot flushes of embarrassment, like my scalp prickles and it's physically uncomfortable! Oh cringing.
― grossly incorrect register (in orbit), Thursday, 13 December 2012 17:08 (eleven years ago) link
on the other hand I'm not sure why Louie doesn't invoke the same feeling
― frogbs, Thursday, 13 December 2012 17:11 (eleven years ago) link
i was in C0st Plu$ last night, as always during the holidays there was a long line for the cashiers. An employee was standing at the head of the line with a plate of samples (white cheddar cheese puffs), telling people when the next cashier was available. But she was kinda in that panic mode where she's pretending to be super-friendly but her voice is kinda shrill and panicky like she's moments away from throwing the sample tray to the floor and storming out.
I'd never EVER seen them handing out samples so that was kinda weird and secondhand embarrassing to begin with, because I think most of the other people in line were all, 'why are you here'. Like we can all see the next available cashier, it's fine.
But on top of smiling in a rictus of panick and saying 'go ahead, the cashier's open now!' she insisted on greeting everyone who walked in the door as well. Which again, never happens in this store. it's just a walk in and shop place, employees say hello if they see you but they don't usually greet you when you walk in. The door was a good 20 feet away from where she was standing at the cashier line. So she'd randomly, panic-ily shout a 'HELLO HOW ARE YOU!!!' - and they'd kinda look around like startled deer becuase they couldn't even *see* her from where they were standing. God it was awkward to watch.
I wanted to simultaneously hug her and die of embarrassment for her.
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 13 December 2012 17:24 (eleven years ago) link
that's not irrational embarrassment -- that's old fashioned empathy!
― passion it person (La Lechera), Thursday, 13 December 2012 17:27 (eleven years ago) link
Greeting people is a commonly used loss prevention technique. They probably had been getting knocked over and LP told them that they had to greet "every single person who comes in the door" or face getting written up or something. In my experience, the greeter comes off as totally awkward and robotic and real shoplifters don't give a shit.
― how's life, Thursday, 13 December 2012 17:32 (eleven years ago) link
well it didn't really make me IA so I figured this was as good a place as any :)
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 13 December 2012 17:32 (eleven years ago) link
xpost but I got the feeling she had just came up with the greeting people thing on the fly to fill in the awkwardness of her role to begin with. OR the store just went completely bonkers over Christmas and gave her this stupid new policy to follow which is just as embarrassing for her
it's like the time our vp of sales came back from Seattle after visiting Pike's Market and decided that every time someone took a phone order they should yell 'order up'. I died of embarrassment for everyone who yelled it. It lasted maybe a week before everyone just quietly stopped doing it.
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 13 December 2012 17:34 (eleven years ago) link
i'm not trying to censor you -- just noticing. pretty much nothing makes me IA, but i would only use this thread for things i am embarrassed about for a completely irrational reasonotherwise i would just post post post post post about moments of empathy all dayand that would be tedious for everyone
― passion it person (La Lechera), Thursday, 13 December 2012 17:35 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah this is the worst. The obv. "we don't trust our customers" meshed with fake friendliness makes me IA.
― dell (del), Thursday, 13 December 2012 17:44 (eleven years ago) link
Also being asked "Can I help you find something today?" 5x or more within a couple of minutes of hsving set foot in the place
― dell (del), Thursday, 13 December 2012 17:46 (eleven years ago) link
i've been that guy so i feel a mix of empathy and hatred at the business for bringing ppl so low
― clouds, Thursday, 13 December 2012 18:10 (eleven years ago) link
Exactly. It distorts the humanity of both the employees and the people shopping there
― dell (del), Thursday, 13 December 2012 19:00 (eleven years ago) link
one thing that sticks in my memory w/r/t this dates from when i briefly worked at this particular central fl bl0ckbust3r that was managed by a dude who was the type of gay that occurs in repressive environments like the south but are also so incredibly stupid and inertia-prone that they remain closeted their entire lives. this dude would be in the back of the store and would bellow "he-LLO!!!" in the most stereotypical richard simmons voice you can imagine. when this happened i would usually be at the front of the store and had already said hello to the person entering like a regular human being out of earshot.
― clouds, Thursday, 13 December 2012 19:11 (eleven years ago) link
not innocuous at all rly, fuck companies that have "greeters," fuck customer service forever
― clouds, Thursday, 13 December 2012 19:14 (eleven years ago) link
i was gonna say, that anger is totally righteous and justified
― passion it person (La Lechera), Thursday, 13 December 2012 19:17 (eleven years ago) link
been there too btw
Is anybody else slightly uncomfortable putting down a tip, embarassed if the recipient sees you doing it, and downright mortified if they call out thanks?
― Guy on the internet (B'wana Beast), Thursday, 13 December 2012 20:32 (eleven years ago) link
yeah i feel that, but you should do it visibly anyway. once a bartender/barista at a bar/cafe in nyc got mad at me because i discreetly put his tip in the jar when he wasn't looking instead of in front of him after he gave me my change and he thought i had snubbed him. well, not "mad", he sort of made this facial expression that i took to mean "un. be. liev. a. ble." then i actually explained to him that i had put two dollars in the jar and that made me feel like the biggest idiot in the world.
― return to the 36 yellowistic chambers (Pat Finn), Thursday, 13 December 2012 22:30 (eleven years ago) link
Is this a UK thing? You tip openly here, it's better if they do see you, avoids any unpleasantness.
― grossly incorrect register (in orbit), Thursday, 13 December 2012 22:35 (eleven years ago) link
well, in my situation i paid at the register because i just got coffee but the server was also serving alcohol and so i guess in his mind he was a bartender who expects everyone, without fail to tip him. i tip baristas anyway, every time -- i used to be one -- but i usually don't make a big show of slipping some money into the jar.
― return to the 36 yellowistic chambers (Pat Finn), Thursday, 13 December 2012 22:43 (eleven years ago) link