We all have embarrassing stories. Some of them we wish would never see the light of day again, I know I have plenty. But there are a few times you can look back at your past, re-live a time when you were completely and utterly embarrassed, and now just laugh at it.

Of course it is never fun in the moment. People are staring at you, laughing, pointing fingers and whispering God knows what about you. All while you try and keep a half smile afloat, your body from tensing up like a stiff, dried out dish rag, and the capillaries in your face from bursting. I was reminded by my wife at dinner last night of one of those times.

I obviously don't have to share my embarrassing stories with anyone, but personally, I felt the need to humble myself. And with what's been going on here as of late, maybe some other Steemians will want to share some of their embarrassing stories for a little humbleness of their own. So with that said, allow me to set the stage...

It's my freshman year of High School and only my second year at my new school. I have a good group of friends, not the most popular kid for sure, but I didn't get beat up every day either. At the time, I probably had better girl friends than guy friends.

I think it was our boys soccer team that had a really good season and they made it to the State Tournament hosted at the now demolished Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis. The school gave us the day off to attend the game and cheer on our team. But first, my mom had asked if I wanted to join her at the nail salon for a manicure.

I had not the slightest idea what a manicure even was at the time, but all my girl friends said they were awesome and that I should take my mom up on it, so I did.

I sat down in the chair and the lady started doing her thing. By then end of it, my nails looked pretty damn good, I was feeling fly. But then the lady asked me something and I couldn't quite understand her, so I looked at my mom across the way and she shook her head yes, so I just said "yeah". At first I thought it would tone down a bit after a few minutes, but it didn't. You might as well have glued disco ball mirrors to my nails. I had the shiniest, most lustrous, glistening nails on the planet. If you were stuck on a deserted island, my nails would have caught the eye of any over head passing plane within a thousand miles. I wouldn't be surprised if a satellite could have spotted me.

I knew it was 'not normal' for a 15 year old boy to have his nails look like this, but I couldn't even imagine the response from my peers.

I made my way down the stairs at the Metrodome towards my group of friends, hands clenched in a fist. But it was too late, they had seen the glimmer all the way from their seats. For the rest of the day I had my hand sprawled out like a newly engaged woman showing off her 3 carat ring. Oh the laughter and snickering that ensued sure made this a memory I will surely never forget. Luckily I have a brush it off attitude and go with the flow kind of mentality which allowed me to laugh along with my friends. To this day, when I run into old friends from HS, they remind me of this story. I'm glad I could be a source of laughter and enjoyment for people, even at the expense of my image.

I have since gone back to the nail salon and gotten both manicures and pedicures. BUT, I make sure to tell them no polish.

I hope you got some joy out of my torment. Do you have an embarrassing story to share? Use the #embarrassyourself or #humbleyourself tags if you want to join in on the purge of self ridicule.

imgs courtesy of google