Think. Then Talk.
It seems like it was in a different life, but I used to spend a lot of time at my aunt and uncle's house in Steubenville. I worked for their company that sold Jaguar parts, gave tours at their car museum, and helped out whenever necessary at their restaurant. It was an odd sort of arrangement that eventually blew up in spectacular fashion (as in, a massive fight on our wedding day that ended . . . ummm . . . very badly) (that's definitely a story for a different day). But, while I was in college, I pretty much spent every possible break there. It was "home" at a time when I was essentially a homeless college kid floating from dorm room to dorm room.
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"This is my friend, Kim," my aunt introduced me to the college-age woman in the back seat of the car. It was pretty much business as usual that she had someone with her that I didn't know. Between employees from the restaurant and students from the local college where my aunt was a board member, it just sort of happened. I was a little annoyed that I was going to have to be at least a little polite during the hour-long car ride from the airport to my aunt's house in Steubenville, but oh well. It had already been a long day of travel, so another hour of misery wasn't going to kill me.
As we made our way down some windy, rural roads, small talk filled the car. They asked about my trip. We talked about the weather forecast. There was discussion about my time working at Disney World. For some reason, I ended up being the one doing the most talking.
Have I ever mentioned that I hate talking to people I don't know? Truly. Give me a room with 200 strangers and ask me to present, and I'm fine. But small groups or one-on-one? MISERY. I don't enjoy it at all. That might be because I have a habit of just blurting things out without considering the whole situation. I'm lacking that filter thing between my brain and mouth. As in, I wasn't born with it and every time I run to Target to buy one, they seem to be sold out.
Gradually the small talk made its way around to the events of the next day. I had returned to town just in time for an event with the Steubenville visitor's bureau. We talked about the concert that was happening in the evening. We discussed the specials the restaurant was running. We debated just how long some of the tours would end up taking. As my aunt asked if I would mind working early in the morning, I remembered that the event included a speech by the reigning Miss America.
"Just don't make me help entertain that airhead," I said.
HELLO, STRANGE PERSON IN THE BACK SEAT.
Who wasn't an airhead at all.
But who was the reigning Miss America, Kimberly Aiken.
WHOOPS.
(She accepted my 18,492,204 apologies.)
(She was totally gorgeous in person. I'm just an idiot.)
(She was really very nice and very intelligent.)
(I'm the airhead. Obviously.)
(Thanks for helping get the Yinz Team marathon peeps to their goal. You can still donate here.)
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Reader Comments (15)
Whoops. ;) Talk about awkward, eh? That's a lot of apologies. I'm sure she was fine with it...
p.s. great story, thanks for sharing it with us!
Bahahaha. Awkward.
Some day I'll tell you about the time I had to drive John Glenn to the airport with a horrible hangover. Actually, I guess that is the whole story. I did my best to be very polite while trying not to throw up and praying I didn't have booze coming out of my pores. I concentrated hard on driving. Because seriously, I didn't want to be the dumbass who killed John Glenn. He went all the way to the moon and back without dying - I didn't want a trip to Athens Ohio to be the cause of his demise. So I guess I could have just said "Hey! I drove John Glenn to the airport once."
Whoopsie! I walked back to our table at a restaurant yesterday evening to hear the manager quipping to a nearby server, "Isn't he a funny-looking baby!" About MY son. I'm sure it wasn't intended the way it sounded because, duh...he's adorable! ;) And she was cooing at him and trying to make him smile. Still...I bet she knows what you felt like. Sort of.
I'm so totally the same way! I don't mind large groups at all. I'm charming and funny and relaxed. But, if I have to interact one-on-one with somebody I don't know that well, I feel all stupid and ill-timed and like I can't control the volume of my voice. haha.
And oh well... I'm sure she's heard those kind of insults before!
man, i am the other way...give me a room of 200 people milling about and i will leave with close to 200 new friends, but expect me to stand up and speak to a room of 200 people and i will throw up before i pass out. i am usually great one on one, but can't stand up in front of a room of even five people. we are both weird.
although i think just about any one of us would have said the same thing in the car that day!
My mouth dropped when I read that. Glad she was so understanding. But who has not done something like that?
HAHAHA! Somewhere, she's probably blogging about some dumbass that once called her an airhead.
OH MY. Foot in mouth. Holy moly! LOL
Wow! If you're going to stick your foot in your mouth, you might as well jam it up in there, huh? ;)
Oh snap. But, I'm sure it isn't the first time that happened to her. ;)
This is why I love you - because you remind me so much of me. :)
LOL!! Do you know that you are a limited edition creation?!
Sorry, but LOL...
OMG, that's hilarious! I'm sure she was well aware of what people think of Miss America and other beauty queens, so she can't have been surprised.
OMG! I am from Steubenville. I went to Jaggin' Around several times as a kid! Have you been there since it turned into Froehlich's Classic Corner? It's totally not the same. Small world!!!
1) I'm sure that wasn't the first time Kimberly Aiken was called an airhead to her face. I bet all the Miss Americas hear it at some point. 2) I'm sorry you had to spend your time in Steubenville. For it being the City of Murals, it's quite sad that they're on crumbling buildings in a virtually abandoned downtown. It's totally gotten worse from the time you were there in the 90's. Granted, I'm sure it was made better by having your family around. ;)
That's awesome. Oh, gosh, it's awesome.