Embarassing Moments

Just the other day my mother casually mentioned one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. It's funny, though, how she remembers it so differently than me.

First of all, she remembers me being only four-years-old when it happened. In truth, I was in fourth grade, which makes it all the worse.

That year before I turned ten, my parents took the family to Disney World. We weren't the type of family to have laid-back vacations. We had to make sure we didn't miss a single thing and we were always go, go, go.

I have a very clear memory of being in Tomorrow Land and rushing to get in line for Space Mountain. My mother said that she had to go to the bathroom again and my father yelled at her in frustration. I had to go a little too, but not enough to get yelled at, so I just waited.

Once we were in line I realized that I should have just gone, but in my pre-teen mindset, I was stuck. I couldn't admit that I had to go.

Surprisingly, I made it though the ride. I thought I was home free, but then we had to get on one of those moving sidewalks to exit the building.

I didn't make it.

I ended up standing in a puddle on the sidewalk. It was bad enough that I had wet my pants in public, but soon that moving sidewalk angled downhill. Yup. Waterfall time.

People were jumping out of the way to avoid getting wet. I was humiliated and my parents were angry and embarrassed. I can laugh about it now, but at the time and for years later, that was the worst moment of my life.

But when my mother mentioned that story the other day, it brought it all flooding back.

I'm going to try really hard to remember that my kids might be in a similar situation some day. For all I know, they've already had their most embarrassing moment. My kids do have a tendency to puke all over town.

But if they ever pee on a moving sidewalk at Disney World, I promise I won't get mad.