I'm Going Slightly Mad

by Paul on 7 December 2009

In the words of that great rock band “Queen”, I’m going slightly mad.

Or at least that’s what my beautiful wife Raewyn is worried about. The last week at church has been absolutely frantic. All in a good way I might add, but frantic and tiring nonetheless.

The weekend culminated on Sunday evening with our volunteers barbecue for about 150 people. Just before we started eating Dan came up to me and asked me why was I wearing two different shoes. I looked down and saw to my horror that indeed my shoes didn’t match.

Now this wasn’t the case of having one black and one dark brown shoe that was similar looking. Oh no! On my left foot I had a light brown casual shoe of the slip on variety and my right foot was sporting a lace up white running shoe. Fortunately being a barbecue things were quite casual so I was able to remove my shoes and socks and go barefoot.

So while Raewyn thinks I am in the early stages of dementia, I’m pretty sure my mind was simply on other things when I put my shoes on. Even so, how was it that I didn’t notice two shoes that were so totally different in every possible way? Here’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. For some reason I recall putting a sock on and then a shoe on the same foot before retrieving my other sock and grabbing another shoe to put on that foot. (Mental note to self: in future always put two socks on before starting was the shoes.)

By the way, the news spread at the barbecue like wildfire and I was mercilessly mocked. Ah, the empathy in a church gathering!

Photo credit: izarbeltza

Question: Have you ever done anything really stupid like this in a situation that caused you embarrassment?