Innocuous things that make you irrationally embarrassed

because, for me, embarrassment is a much more common reaction than anger

e.g. when people respond to comedians' tweets or (especially) instagrams with "funny" comments

any type of performance that requires being HAPPY! in a really showy way (which means i can't watch any singing/dancing-based reality show)

eating in public

trying on clothes in department stores

being introduced to new people

"mingling" at parties

every single episode of breaking bad

taking cyrus in to school in the morning. and its not just me, half the people in there could teach a master class on avoiding eye contact.

god yeah, i frantically hunt the playground for the 2 or 3 people i can talk to

being around my dad when he talks to anybody in a shop, pub etc

i could list these things all day but i am too embarrassed

i used to get embarrassed when my dad would ramble on and never listen to the person trying to talk to him but now i don't care. i'm just glad he's still alive so i just watch him and smile. its like watching a big demented baby talk to people. who is hard of hearing. and who listens to jazz all day long and reads the wall street journal. okay, that's a really weird baby...

guys trying to flirt on facebook, publicly

People who comment on the food I am eating, or have just ordered. A truly irrational pet peeve.

People trying to impress their favourite musicians on facebook by posting fawning comments. It's even worse in real life. Note : I have done both of these things myself.

i told kim gordon that i really liked the harry crews album when i was drunk years ago. #bigfatliar

eating chobani yogurt fills me with disgust and self hatred, but i like this one flavor so much that i will suffer through the shame to eat it.

why does it make you feel that way? also, which flavor?

passion fruit

1) the name is so focus grouped that it makes me ashamed to say it, or even think about it
2) yogurt is for woman, and i am a woman
3) stirring up the fruit from the bottom is the worst sound on earth
4) i have long had an aversion to watching people eat yogurt, it's at least 20 years old
5) do i need another reason?

all completely valid reasons! especially #1; that's one of those words i do anything to avoid saying, and if i absolutely must say it, i involuntarily shudder.
passion fruit is one of the best flavors, though. recently i've been buying cabot greek yogurt which is cheaper and way better, but doesn't come in the individual sized cups so i can't bring it to work.

i hate this brand of yogurt so much that i have thought about ways to create my own passion fruit yogurt by making the pulp myself and freezing it in little individual tubes so that it defrosts by lunchtime and i can enjoy my yogurt with peace of mind.

empty shops/restaurants that are clearly struggling for business

people baby-talking to their kids, especially if it's about their faeces.

people pronouncing things wrong. my favourite is when people ask for the beer "bombardier" (pronounced in the ww2 spiffing way) and say "bombard-e-ay" in the french way, just a perfect failure. (i definitely pronounce things wrong myself, obv, sometimes, and then get even more embarrassed)

i heard a mom at the grocery store ask her toddler "do you wanna do oj or peach mango?"
kid in the cart: "let's do oj"

me: shame at having overheard that, it was just too personal and also since when did little kids say "let's do _____" when they want something?!?!

live theatre :-/

i think you mean bad live theatre

there is *a lot* of bad live theatre though, so yeah

Cartoon characters on generic products.

hockey players in advertisements

overheard conversations

generally

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOrvdvczpEA

improv

People who comment on the food I am eating, or have just ordered. microwaving.. A truly irrational pet peeve.

"ooh, that smells nice..."

DO YOU WANT SOME?????

there is *a lot* of bad live theatre though, so yeah

painfully true. but i do tend to be irrationally embarrassed by people ~acting~ in a live setting, regardless of the quality of performance/ production. the closer they are to me physically, the more embarrassed i get.

improv comedy or improv anything?

comedy i guess? i'm not sure what other kinds of improv i'd run into

omg hahaaaa, mooks knows what i'm talking about
that clip is practically canadian
xps

http://youtu.be/vDggoBZ2A48

though the wayne gretzky ones of the 80s/90s were prob worse and more ubiquitous...

Everything I say and everything I do.

irish politics

Oh man. When I correct someone, or answer a question earnestly, and then immediately realise they were only joking. I guess it's rational to feel some embarrassment about that, but probably not rational to feel so much shame I just want to leave work straight away, get the train home, run upstairs to a cupboard, turn out the light and hide under every bit of linen I can find.

stop correcting ppl, it's ama awful habit, even when they're wrong. get home.

*points out typo*

*kills self*

witnessing people bragging

good one

I probably embarrass people when I temporarily bond with sales people (usually at the cosmetics counter).

empty shops/restaurants that are clearly struggling for business

I end up never even going into these places since I know that if I go in and start browsing I will feel obligated to buy something because I feel bad about their business not doing well.

I don't really feel embarrassed or anything though, this is just expensive sympathy.

Having someone walk or talk me through something makes me feel like a child.

The worst example of this, for me, is waiting staff in restaurants who come over to the table and squat down beside you to go through the menu. Makes me feel three years old.

there are so many things that can go on in fancy restaurants that will make me IE

the only thing that makes me IE is when I order something and they're out of it and they get so faux-apologetic, cos like....it's a restaurant, shit happens, I'm not devastated. but then I remember that this behavior is more borne out of having tons of customers who do fly off the handle about such things so the embarrassment passes.

what I really can't do are those 'build your own' restaurants where you choose a base, a protein, and toppings etc. too many choices on the fly unless I've already decided coming in. I always go with a pre-set dish from the menu then or I order online and pick it up.

where you choose a base, a protein, and toppings etc.

Absolutely hate this, just recommend me whatever mix of these things is considered best by you, the restaurant that should know this stuff way better than me. I actually do get stupidly embarrassed because I worry that I won't pick the optimal meal.

This is my least favorite type of restaurant.

Right off the bat you’re giving me a problem to solve? Fuck off.

Hate being asked to choose a ‘protein’.

glad to see I have compadres here. some of my friends who are foodies prefer this because they like to customize their meals anyway, but I have no palette whatsoever or know anything about food, so I'm with silverfish - give me something you already know is delicious, instead of assuming I'll congeal whatever incongruous ingredients together into a coherent combination

Hate being asked to choose a ‘protein’

yeah anytime I see a 'pick a protein' sign I usually head for the door

i got a protein for ya all right

Now I'm rationally embarrassed.

i got a protein for ya all right

any restaurant that treats food as a series of nutritional components to be assembled can fuck off

also hard to determine calories etc

"pick your starch" is even worse! i think I've only seen that in San Francisco!

I have been witness to ‘starch’ from servers before. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard that word in a broad outstate Minnesota accent.

https://images.freshop.com/00885967081206/ccbde883d0d971e2a6b111baa090ef8e_large.png

for burritos at like Chipotle, it's easier because like, I know exactly what I like in a burrito, but also, burritos/tacos etc are the type of thing that even someone who doesn't cook like me has made on his own or eaten enough of that they know what goes in it.

but some of these 'create your own bowl' places were in cuisine I was new to, or fusion places, and me being food illiterate, I literally didn't know how these ingredients would play together. so if I went to one of them I'd always ask for whatever pre-determined menu items they already had, otherwise it'd be the equivalent of making a salad and fucking throwing whatever you had lying around in your fridge on top of it.

I feel like there was an episode of the US version of Kitchen Nightmares (far shittier) which had a pizza restaurant where people did this, similar to what Blaze does only it was a sit down restaurant, so you were making these decisions while seated, without the ingredients in front of you. and Gordon Ramsay point blank pointed at two ingredients and said "if I put these together on a pizza, wouldn't that taste like absolute shit?", and the owner said "well, yeah", and then Ramsay asked "but you'd let me order it that way?", "Well yeah". "why the fuck would you allow the customer to design food that tastes like absolute shit and they'll wind up hating?"

I have a favorite Italian sub place where the mix of toppings is exquisite except that I don't want the hot peppers.

So I just say I want it with everything but the hot peppers. They know what that means and they go do it for me, and the result is a perfect, perfect sandwich.

But if I go some other place where I'm asked to list the toppings that I do want (in an additive, rather than subtracting, process), I freeze. I can hazard a guess, but I might omit something that is part of the holistic sandwichosity of my ideal sandwich. Also I do not think I could say the correct proportions of lettuce tomato onion pickle oregano olives oil vinegar or whatever.

As a longtime devotee of the Sandwich Arts, I find this embarrassment quite rational, thxbye

lol 100% otm

Agree with you on Chipotle though. There I can manage.

god the worst is when someone goes to a restaurant where there are thoughtfully composed menu items (like where i work) and then tries to make it their own way -- if someone is annoying enough, we will give in. i remember someone ordering a pizza with peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach, and onions and it was the wettest, soggiest glop i have ever seen. unsurprisingly, they did not like this pizza and sent it back, asking for a crispier one w same toppings. unsurprisingly it came back floppy and wet in the middle but burnt around the edges and everyone was like THAT is what YOU ordered so eat it or gtfo.

none of this makes me embarrassed tho

more of a cautionary tale i tell to people when they try to customize their food too much
we have a chef for a reason, deletions only

About the only change I ever request is "no olives" but tbh a lot of dishes w olives in them I wouldn't order anyway.

I just LOLd at the office at

This is my least favorite type of restaurant.

Right off the bat you’re giving me a problem to solve? Fuck off.

― Cow_Art, Thursday, December 19, 2024 2:18 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

The pick a protein thing also drives me nuts. It just sounds so unappealing. I hate it.

The ‘pick your protein’ phenomenon usually has an irritating bedfellow: the ‘bowl’.

lol

I've heard pick your starch as well though not as often. Anyway I hate it.

The UK food lexicon does not yet include ‘starch’.

Sometimes it’s the little things that warm the heart most.

"Do you want it cooked properly?"

I guess it's similar to getting my hair cut:
I was shockingly old by the time I got used to being asked things like "Do you want me to use scissors or clippers?" or "How short do you want me to go on the sides?"
I don't know man, YOU'RE the hairdresser. I don't ask my clients what sort of keyboard they prefer me to use.

Those few moments in the chair trying to explain what I want while a black sheet is draped round my neck making me look like Baron Harkonnen on New Year's Day is definitely an irrationally embarrassing ordeal. I'm always unsure what I'm saying and I'm worried the hairdresser or someone else in the shop will scoff at me and say something like "You can't polish a turd". Bringing-in a photo is even more embarrassing, even if it is the best way to show what you're thinking

Oh yeah I used to be kinda bewildered by men who tell a barber what number of clipper-guard-thingy to use. "A 3 on the sides and a 4 in the back" or whatever.

It is commonplace, now, and of course harmless to me. A lot of guys find it an easy way to get exactly what they want, so good for them. It is just Very Not Like Me.

On reflection, it says more about me than them (that I would rather have a bad haircut than learn how to ask for what I want in those terms).

Oh man! I've never been capable of handling a haircut either. For the most part I've either grown it long or shaved it myself so as not to deal with it.

I once asked my longtime stylist, "If I have to go to a different stylist some point, is there something I can say to ask for this same haircut?"

He just laughed and said, "No, nothing." My haircut is a trade secret, apparently.

A good conversation will pop up on the no boys thread and I’ll go “ooh” and start to OTM someone and then notice which thread it is and go “oh oops” and delete in silent wholly self-inflicted shame

It’s absolutely ridiculous but it happens every time the thread gets bumped. I shouldn’t get embarrassed for not posting on the no boys thread but my brain goes “oh but what if I had

A good stylist is like a good shrink, hang on to them for dear life

i don’t really understand either of these more recent gripes, but then again i love assembling my own weird food things and find getting a haircut an annoying if innocuous task

question tho: like, do those who hate the assemble your meal phenomenon like to cook? i guess that to me, if i am in a certain type of restaurant, i can easily imagine what certain ingredients will taste like, and so it feels nice to be able to choose exactly the sort of meal i want.

I actually don't mind getting g my haircut, it's just that whole "Right, what are we doing today?" question that makes me feel personally embarrassed.

As for "make it yourself" restaurants, well it's okay and I get it, but I agree that I'm eating out so I don't have to think too hard about these things

I also have no problem with choosing ingredients for my restaurant meal, and objecting to it feels a bit odd to me.

Yeah y’all are weird.

I mean it's a personal preference, yea? I don't think it's weird if you like doing that, but like tabes says, it might come down to:

1) level of food knowledge/experience cooking or

2) people who get anxious w making decisions a la me

Or lots of them in short succession if there's a line behind you lol

I am fine with choosing my ingredients, it's calling it "pick a protein" which is a crime

I can handle choosing a meat or whatever. But when i’m choosing a base, and a protein, and the toppings, I feel like i’m telling people how to make my food and it’s not fun. I want to order a dish and sit and eat it. I don’t want to cook it myself or tell people how to put it together.

Really, I like sit down restaurants where people bring me shit and take the dirty dishes away. Sheer bliss is where I’m a regular and they know what I want and bring it to me. There was a mediocre mexican place in Houston. I was a loyal customer because my waitress there knew what I liked and knew not to give me a straw because I don’t use them.

So the build-a-bear restaurant model is definitely not for me.

How would you like your amino content? Rich or lite?

I really really don’t get it, but I’m used to ordering burritos and stuff

Its almost as if people are getting embarrassed in an irrational way about things mist people would consider innocuous

I'm still childish enough to think of eating out at a non-fast food restaurant as a treat, not something I do because I don't want to cook.

Its almost as if people are getting embarrassed in an irrational way about things mist people would consider innocuous

Get irrationally embarrassed when customers ask 'how are you doing today?' when I serve them at the till. Rationally I know that all that is required is for me to say 'good, how are you?' but I can never bring myself to do it. I don't really know why. I just carry on like they haven't said anything and scan their books and tell them the total.

Haven’t perfected your service mask? I only perk up when ppl ask me weird questions like “are you filling up someone’s water bottle?” And I have to reply “yea, mine”