Did you remember to engage your brain this morning?
Despite trying to be conscientious and considerate, I do, on occasion, make errors of judgement. So far, none have been fatal, but some are humorous (at least to me). Here are some faux-pas I have made over the years that I find amusing.
I returned home one afternoon around 14:30 and found a message on my answering machine from a friend in Japan. Doing a bit of quick math, I added 12 hours to the current time and arrived at 20:30 – 21:00 Japan time. I called her and was greeted with a very groggy "Moshi, moshi" at which point I realized ... oops ... it is not 21:00 local time, but 03:00. I apologized and let her get back to sleep.
Another time, I was over at a friend's house for dinner and I noticed his wife had a rounded belly. I congratulated her on being pregnant. She replied that she was not pregnant just overweight. Oops.
I later did something similar several years later when I asked an overweight and pregnant coworker when she was due. She told me she had given birth several months previous. Double oops!
More recently, I noticed another female coworker seemed to be putting on weight. Her face was fuller, but I didn't say anything. Then I was speaking with her and noticed she was developing a belly like so many of the male programmers. I still did not say anything. When it was announced she was taking a year off, I approached her and asked why? She said, "Haven't you noticed?" She was pregnant (and gave birth to a beautiful boy).
Finally, several months back, I was in Loblaws (a major grocery chain) and was looking for something. I couldn't find it, so I approached two people, a young man and an older woman, who seemed to be fussing over a product display. Both had black pants and one was wearing a red short sleeved shirt and the other a black short sleeved shirt - colours I have seen store employees wearing. I approached them for assistance. I asked my question. They didn't quite get it, as I observed English was not their mother tongue. I asked again and as I looked them over, I realized they were not store employees. I quickly apologized and took my leave. Did I mention they were Latino? No doubt, I left them with the impression of this stupid Gringo who thinks visible minorities must be hired help and not customers. sigh.
I returned home one afternoon around 14:30 and found a message on my answering machine from a friend in Japan. Doing a bit of quick math, I added 12 hours to the current time and arrived at 20:30 – 21:00 Japan time. I called her and was greeted with a very groggy "Moshi, moshi" at which point I realized ... oops ... it is not 21:00 local time, but 03:00. I apologized and let her get back to sleep.
Another time, I was over at a friend's house for dinner and I noticed his wife had a rounded belly. I congratulated her on being pregnant. She replied that she was not pregnant just overweight. Oops.
I later did something similar several years later when I asked an overweight and pregnant coworker when she was due. She told me she had given birth several months previous. Double oops!
More recently, I noticed another female coworker seemed to be putting on weight. Her face was fuller, but I didn't say anything. Then I was speaking with her and noticed she was developing a belly like so many of the male programmers. I still did not say anything. When it was announced she was taking a year off, I approached her and asked why? She said, "Haven't you noticed?" She was pregnant (and gave birth to a beautiful boy).
Finally, several months back, I was in Loblaws (a major grocery chain) and was looking for something. I couldn't find it, so I approached two people, a young man and an older woman, who seemed to be fussing over a product display. Both had black pants and one was wearing a red short sleeved shirt and the other a black short sleeved shirt - colours I have seen store employees wearing. I approached them for assistance. I asked my question. They didn't quite get it, as I observed English was not their mother tongue. I asked again and as I looked them over, I realized they were not store employees. I quickly apologized and took my leave. Did I mention they were Latino? No doubt, I left them with the impression of this stupid Gringo who thinks visible minorities must be hired help and not customers. sigh.
Comments
Great post and great recall!
She was a great friend.