Jan 29 2009
Open mouth, insert foot.
I seriously need to zip my lip sometimes.
I have this uncanny ability to blurt out the most idiotic and sometimes inappropriate things. It is never because I am trying to offend the person I’m talking to, it’s just that I don’t pick the correct wording and the meaning gets all jumbled. Or, in some instances, I speak before I thoroughly survey the situation. Which is what happened yesterday at the grocery store.
I pulled up in line behind a couple and their two young kids. A little boy was in the back of the cart, just a little tuft of hair on his head, and a little girl sat in the front, with the same amount of hair. In my twin reverie, I glanced at them briefly, took in the hair situation, and immediately assumed twins. Eager to make conversation with someone who has twins and share with them my news (I know, super duper nerdy of me, but I’m excited, what can I say?), I leaned toward the mother and asked, “Are your babies twins?”
Now, in my defense, I had only briefly glanced at the little girl in the front, but could clearly see the little boy in the back. The mother was blocking my view of the girl. She turned to me, and said, “Oh no, my son there is eight months old, and my daughter is three. She has cancer and lost all her hair.”
Way. To. Go. Lindsay. Jeez!
The woman chuckled, probably in attempt to make me feel better for saying such an idiotic thing. You’d think at this point, my mouth would have shut up, but no. I had to rectify the situation.
“Oh, I see now. I’m sorry. Your daughter and my son are the same age!”
The lady nodded at me courteously, and went on her way. I felt horrible. I mean, obviously I’m going to take a closer survey of the situation before blurting anything like that out again, but still, I can’t take back what I had said. My only hope is that the mother didn’t think anything of it. Or, that she went home and explained it to her husband and they had a little laugh about my ignorance and big mouth. It really would make me feel better if I knew I made them laugh.
See, I’m fairly new to this whole “interacting with strangers” thing. For a very long time as a child and teenager, I was painfully shy. Somewhere between high school and now, I have started to feel more comfortable talking to anyone and everyone and striking up conversations in random places, like the checkout line. Usually, it leads to some interesting conversations. Sometimes, like in this situation, I half consider going back to my zipped-lip ways.
Who am I kidding? Once you go blab, you never go back.
At least I’ll know better next time.
