Rude Awakenings

Rude awakenings - those comedic twists that catch us off guard, sometimes funny only AFTER the fact.

*Discovering under fluorescent work lights that your socks or shoes don’t match. Seems a bigger deal when one shoe is blue and one is black. Easier to overlook mismatched socks. But at least my shoes matched in style! Back in my school days, if a comfy pair of shoes came in multiple colors, I snatched two or three pairs.

*Back when there was less of me and I tucked my blouses in, it was a shock to discover my slacks buttoned and belted, but not zipped! Two questions always surfaced quickly at that revelation. How long was I unzipped and why did no one tell me? In retrospect, eighth graders would get a lot of mileage out of it as long as I DIDN’T know.

*Shopping on a busy day, standing in a long line, piling groceries on the conveyor and realizing when the cashier is about finished that your wallet is lying on the car seat and your car is not parked close to the door.

*Some cats consider sardines a dessert or a treat, not a main course. Can’t realize you forgot to get cat food and not hear about it.

*Time to do laundry. No clean underwear.

*Walking lickety-split to your car in a crowded parking lot, mentally patting yourself on the back because you remembered where it was, but wait, what is wrong? It won’t open! Or worse, whose stuff is this in my car and why is it not starting?

*Out of toilet paper.

*I still have but seldom wear one of those long skirts that for some reason used to get caught in the back of the panty hose waistband after a restroom break. Always an embarrassing discovery.

*Totally missing an appointment/meeting that you had on your calendar, prepared for and dressed for. Once I surprised my own substitute by showing up when I should have been elsewhere.

*Following the treasure hunt, realizing those favored relaxed-fit jeans, well-loved and well-worn and perfect for a relaxed-fit February Saturday drive, will not button or zip. How did that happen?

Few are resistant to life’s sporadic uh-oh’s. We get busy. Minds get crammed with details. These little detours provide comic relief and gentle reminders to take a break, recover and/or regroup, and carry on.