What's the most embarrassing thing you did because of a special interest?

[Autisticool]

Has a special interest ever made you do anything really embarrassing?

As an adult, not as a child. When I was around 46 I actually hurried down my street on my feet, and trespassed into the backyard of a townhome complex and stood on the patio of the end unit of the four-plex. I stood there to watch something going on in the backyard that this yard abutted: A tree trimming operation.

At the time I was hyperfixated on the tree care industry, which was spawned from a huge interest in wood chipper deaths. So when I heard the chainsaw from inside my house, I dashed outdoors to locate it. I was standing there, on someone else's patio, watching the guy high up in a tree, slicing off big branches.

Suddenly a woman comes out from behind me and asks who I am and what am I doing on her patio. I said I was watching the tree cutting. She was irked and looked a bit creeped out by me, but said, "This is private property. Get off my property."

I then realized what I had done, apologized and promptly vacated her property. I still can't believe I did this. At the time I had NO idea it was autism (I was only recently diagnosed). I'm sure people here can top this, though. Remember: adulthood, not teen or childhood.

 

[Misery]

Oh boy have I got one.

So, I'm a longtime cosplayer. And specifically, one who tends to do the sort that makes me look very much like the opposite gender. And like many cosplay outfits, it wouldnt look "normal" even at the best of times. After all, anime & gaming characters tend towards "elaborate weirdness" in terms of style.

I walked into a normal Walgreens store in full costume, once.

It made sense at the time. Well, as much sense as it's possible for that to make. However, the people that were in there sure didnt expect that (even despite a convention going on nearby).

I dont think I need to even explain further. You get the idea.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

b

Oh boy have I got one.

So, I'm a longtime cosplayer. And specifically, one who tends to do the sort that makes me look very much like the opposite gender. And like many cosplay outfits, it wouldnt look "normal" even at the best of times. After all, anime & gaming characters tend towards "elaborate weirdness" in terms of style.

I walked into a normal Walgreens store in full costume, once.

It made sense at the time. Well, as much sense as it's possible for that to make. However, the people that were in there sure didnt expect that (even despite a convention going on nearby).

I dont think I need to even explain further. You get the idea.

Nobody would have missed a beat had you visited a WalMart. I'm sure you have heard about Walmart Bingo.

 

[Aspychata]

b

Nobody would have missed a beat had you visited a WalMart. I'm sure you have heard about Walmart Bingo.
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Where is 300lb person stuffed into spandex? Could be man or woman. Since people are free to wear what they want.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Well, Paddling Whitewater in an open canoe there were ample opportunities for embarrassment. I have had my share of spectacular swims. Once in a practically open river I was not paying attention after a demanding Class III+ drop and went over a highly aerated pourover and lost boyancy completely. I was maytagged (recirculated like in a washing machine) in that churning hole along with my boat and felt like a drowned rat after being fished out by a raft after a 1/4 mile swim.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

b

Nobody would have missed a beat had you visited a WalMart. I'm sure you have heard about Walmart Bingo.
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Yeaaaaaaah. I can’t play that card in my state. The Walmart’s where I live can’t sell alcohol at all because of state law.

 

[Misery]

b

Nobody would have missed a beat had you visited a WalMart. I'm sure you have heard about Walmart Bingo.
View attachment 77457

I dunno, there's a couple of those that seem a bit misplaced.

Like, "parent getting angry at child", well... having seen how some kids act, it's a wonder you dont see this WAY more often.

"Adult wearing character T-shirt" is another one. Maybe I'm not quite getting what specifically that means, but as a long time member of the geek community, well... yeah that one's not exactly rare, I'll put it that way.

As for the others, the one that always really gets me is "just underpants". How and why does someone end up doing that? I just... I cant parse that one.


Also I would like to submit this link for everyone's amusement:

People Of Walmart

You can get lost in there.

 

[Azul]

b

Nobody would have missed a beat had you visited a WalMart. I'm sure you have heard about Walmart Bingo.
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Oh my. I wear character t-shirts sometimes. I'm 30. Am I weirder than I believed?

 

[Azul]

As for the others, the one that always really gets me is "just underpants". How and why does someone end up doing that? I just... I cant parse that one.

Once I almost left the house like that. I dunno. Either you're just so sleepy or acts so mindlessly by habit that you miss a few details sometimes.

Edit: I had the top part though. Just not pants.

 

[Aspychata]

Mornings, l present as Ms Crabby pants. So l was jamming out to work, catch da bus in Honolulu. I looked down, and ver sures, my black heels, da kind two different heel heights. One was 1 inch, the other was 3 inches. Home l went to change.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Oh my. I wear character t-shirts sometimes. I'm 30. Am I weirder than I believed?

Yep. Just like me. I was 28 and had just been through a torrential downpour that turned the strip mine, I was fossil collecting in, into a festival of mud. I showed up at the doorstep of my future spouse to meet for the first time, soaked, filthy, wearing a Mickey Mouse wife beater. She didn't call the cops and later told me that I looked harmless.

ps. I have two favorite T shirts, one is decorated with trilobites from the U-Dig quarry. The other is a drawing by Jim Yellowknife, a Lakota artist, of an Indian in full regalia riding an Indian motorcycle. Lakota humor.

 

[Suzette]

I once arrived at the ofice in my slippers.

As for character tees and angry parents...those are indeed normal things.
On Walmart bingo they could sub "wife or mother checking the label in her husbands or adult sons underpants while they are wearing them." for one option.

 

[Au Naturel]

Probably the first time I posed as a figure model as a freshman in college. Funny to look back at it but at the time it came close to a panic attack.

 

[Suzette]

Oh, yea, I can top it. In fact, mine is too embarrassing to tell the story!!

We can't let you get away with that cop out! (Bizarre phrase any way) Story! Story! Please uncle Ken, puleeese!

 

[Kalinychta]

Here's the thing; it is too embarrassing for me and even if I did tell the story, it would most likely get deleted by the forum moderator. Yes, it's that embarrassing. 44 years later, it is still shockingly embarrassing even to think about. I doubt if anyone could believe I wasn't conscious of what I did until it was pointed out. Probably the most embarrassing thing in my life - and believe me I've had my share of embarrassments!!

Well now we’re all dying to know! Can you sum up the details in one or two sentences?

 

[Kalinychta]

Mornings, l present as Ms Crabby pants. So l was jamming out to work, catch da bus in Honolulu. I looked down, and ver sures, my black heels, da kind two different heel heights. One was 1 inch, the other was 3 inches. Home l went to change.

I have experienced many a wardrobe snafu in my life. They sure make good stories.

 

[Suzette]

@Ken , I will leave you with your dignity in tact, but dang! I am curios!

 

[Kalinychta]

I realized after making that posting that it was a mistake. Well, OK. I just hope I won't get banned from the forum.

In 1978 I was working at a high end audio shop as a repair technician. The repair shop had a counter that was about three and a half feet high. That was where customers were to bring in their equipment and fill out the paperwork. One day a thin but overly endowed young lady brought in something for repair - I can't remember what it was. She was wearing a very thin T-shirt. After placing the item on the counter, she lifted her boobs and rested them on the counter.

I got out the paperwork and asked her name, contact info, description of issue, etc. After finishing the paperwork, I turned it around for her to review and sign. She paused and made a funny face and said, "That's not my name." I looked at it and it looked correct to me. So, I asked her to spell it. As she spelled her name, it all checked out. After saying it looks correct to me, she exclaimed, "that is not my name!" As I looked back at the name on the paperwork, as if something magical, the written name transformed before my eyes into... Titts.

Without a doubt, that was the most mortifying thing I have any memory of doing. I couldn't imagine how I could have done that. It just wasn't me. Wasn't anything I would ever do or ever did before or after that. I still do not understand how the spelling matched her real name and then morphed into something very different. It is still mortifying and still mystifying.

That’s horrifying! But I was beginning to suspect that you’d accidentally murdered someone or something, ha! I would have been mortified, too. I wonder what the deal was with your brain that day?

 

[Autisticool]

I realized after making that posting that it was a mistake. Well, OK. I just hope I won't get banned from the forum.

In 1978 I was working at a high end audio shop as a repair technician. The repair shop had a counter that was about three and a half feet high. That was where customers were to bring in their equipment and fill out the paperwork. One day a thin but overly endowed young lady brought in something for repair - I can't remember what it was. She was wearing a very thin T-shirt. After placing the item on the counter, she lifted her boobs and rested them on the counter.

I got out the paperwork and asked her name, contact info, description of issue, etc. After finishing the paperwork, I turned it around for her to review and sign. She paused and made a funny face and said, "That's not my name." I looked at it and it looked correct to me. So, I asked her to spell it. As she spelled her name, it all checked out. After saying it looks correct to me, she exclaimed, "that is not my name!" As I looked back at the name on the paperwork, as if something magical, the written name transformed before my eyes into... Titts.

Without a doubt, that was the most mortifying thing I have any memory of doing. I couldn't imagine how I could have done that. It just wasn't me. Wasn't anything I would ever do or ever did before or after that. I still do not understand how the spelling matched her real name and then morphed into something very different. It is still mortifying and still mystifying.

But how was this related to a special interest? Aren't most men (i.e., NTs) somewhat primal in their thinking when they see big boobs?

 

[Kalinychta]

But how was this related to a special interest? Aren't most men (i.e., NTs) somewhat primal in their thinking when they see big boobs?

Ohhhh this thread is about embarrassing things that have to do with hobbies and interests. I completely missed that part of the title.