So, ADHD is embarrassing.

I realise that the ADHD has probably been responsible for a large portion of the embarrassing situations I've found myself in throughout my life.  So I thought it would be fun to share them.

I once sat peering out of my tent door when on holiday with friends enthusing about how good Colgate toothpaste is.  I was holding up the tube to show everyone at the time.  The others began to laugh.

I was holding up my tube of contraceptive jelly.

I once went to work in odd shoes.

I speak before I think.  At a very smart restaurant, my friend asked for information about the steaks and was told by the waitress that the butchers were very good and she was sure they were well hung.  I asked, 'And what about the steaks?'

I once fell asleep in an exam.  I woke with a noisy shout when I was disturbed by an invigilator.

I set a T shirt on fire by throwing it over my shoulder onto a lamp with a very hot bulb and I didn't notice where it had landed.

I once set my bed on fire and didn't notice (though to be fair, I wasn't alone and was quite busy at the time.)

I once burnt myself by walking into a door when I was carrying a tray of muffins straight from the oven.

I once set my hair on fire when I was climbing into a tent with a candle.  I didn't realise the burning sound and smell was coming from me and I frantically tried to put out the fire by bashing the side of the tent with my free hand.  No-one I was with came out of their tents to check if I was okay.  My gasps and panicked mutterings and 'Oh NO!'s were so frequent that no-one even noticed.

When I was 13, I forgot that I needed to wait for the school bus to stop before I got off.  I bounced alongside the bus until both the bus and I came to a halt.  Fortunately, only my ego was bruised, as all the children in my class had seen me do this, glasses bouncing on my nose as it happened.  And to add insult to injury, a dear old lady got up off the park bench she was sitting on to let me sit down.

How does someone FORGET to wait for a bus to stop before getting off?!

I turned up at the hospital with a suitcase ready for my planned surgery - a week early.

I can look back on these and smile, and of course some of them are quite funny (to me at least) but there is a slightly more serious point (apart from wondering about the excess of fire incidents)  I've always used self deprecating humour in social situations.  I actually don't like doing it, but I've done so many stupid things that it's an easy fix in a situation where I feel like I don't know what to say.  I'm not overly comfortable with people knowing everything about me.  I like privacy, but most people don't know that about me because I blurt out whatever comes to mind and it's usually something embarrassing about myself.  So people end up knowing far more about me than I'd really like and I end up knowing far less about them than I'd really like because I can't remember what they've said or I wasn't listening properly or, you know, I spotted a squirrel when they were talking or something...

There's no real point to this entry, except that maybe I'd like to try to use self deprecating humour less or even  do fewer embarrassing things in the first place!

Now there's an ambition!  That's more of a challenge than learning to drive I suspect (and that took 8 years!)