Today, I fell for Waffle House in a big, big way.
The lifelong roommate and I were in Dallas this weekend seeing our family. We decided to eat breakfast at a Waffle House.
It was chaos inside with a lot of hungry people and limited seating.
As we were patiently waiting on a table, I got a call from our answering service about a particularly annoying plumbing problem which sort of upset me because it should have been fixed already.
I stepped outside to talk on the phone in peace.
With the problem potentially solved, I returned to our group to again wait patiently.
As I came in the door, a very small boy ran out in front of me. I didn't really notice him in time to completely avoid him and had to swerve to miss him.
It was all a blur at that point and I really don't know what happened, but I somehow lost my balance and was unable to correct in time before I found myself laying on the floor. I don't know if the floor was slippery, or if I tripped over my own feet. But, somehow I wound up falling completely to the floor.
Everyone was completely stunned. The family with the small boy was just staring at me with shocked expressions, not quite knowing what to do or say.
I was not hurt, I don't think. The family apologized, the boy was fine and all was well.
But, I was embarrassed.
Most of all, I felt very, very vulnerable. There's no way you can fall on your face in public and ever be cool again.
There's no way of falling and ever having a chance at saving face. You have gone from an unknown person in the room full of people to being stared at by everyone. I was anxious for everyone that had seen the huge incident to be leaving the restaurant and forgetting they had ever seen me and my embarrassing fall.
And, I really don't like being stared at.
This was just one more big, grim reminder that I am getting older and I am not the man I used to be. That is hard to deal with at times, but something that everybody goes through if they are lucky enough to become older.
Older people fall a lot and I am not at that level, but this fall made me feel a little older than I want to be.
I had kind of hoped to make it through my life without taking an embarrassing public fall.
Too late for that now.
The lifelong roommate and I were in Dallas this weekend seeing our family. We decided to eat breakfast at a Waffle House.
It was chaos inside with a lot of hungry people and limited seating.
As we were patiently waiting on a table, I got a call from our answering service about a particularly annoying plumbing problem which sort of upset me because it should have been fixed already.
I stepped outside to talk on the phone in peace.
With the problem potentially solved, I returned to our group to again wait patiently.
As I came in the door, a very small boy ran out in front of me. I didn't really notice him in time to completely avoid him and had to swerve to miss him.
It was all a blur at that point and I really don't know what happened, but I somehow lost my balance and was unable to correct in time before I found myself laying on the floor. I don't know if the floor was slippery, or if I tripped over my own feet. But, somehow I wound up falling completely to the floor.
Everyone was completely stunned. The family with the small boy was just staring at me with shocked expressions, not quite knowing what to do or say.
I was not hurt, I don't think. The family apologized, the boy was fine and all was well.
But, I was embarrassed.
Most of all, I felt very, very vulnerable. There's no way you can fall on your face in public and ever be cool again.
There's no way of falling and ever having a chance at saving face. You have gone from an unknown person in the room full of people to being stared at by everyone. I was anxious for everyone that had seen the huge incident to be leaving the restaurant and forgetting they had ever seen me and my embarrassing fall.
And, I really don't like being stared at.
This was just one more big, grim reminder that I am getting older and I am not the man I used to be. That is hard to deal with at times, but something that everybody goes through if they are lucky enough to become older.
Older people fall a lot and I am not at that level, but this fall made me feel a little older than I want to be.
I had kind of hoped to make it through my life without taking an embarrassing public fall.
Too late for that now.
2 comments:
That's your first public fall???? Then you have been very lucky, my friend!!!! haha! Glad you are okay, and that the kid didn't get hurt!
It was pretty crazy and it all happened in slow motion.
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