embarrassment- the shame you feel when your inadequacy is made public

Why? Why? Why do I say really stupid things?

This morning I went to a breakfast meeting for Goodwin Management, Matt's company. I was invited because I am an agent for Goodwin Partners, the real estate brokerage. Matt, of course, was in Haiti.

So when his boss started introducing people, my immediate expectation was that if he had originally planned on introducing Matt, then I am surely going to be introduced in his place. Sure enough, that is what happened. So I could feel my face start to get red when he said, "And I wanted to introduce to you the head of accounting, Matt Gibson, but he's in Haiti this week. His lovely wife is here with us..." Uh oh, here it goes. So he proceeded to introduce me... but he didn't stop there.

"Tell us, how is Matt doing in Haiti?" (Here's where it went downhill.)

"Um... he's good... he's alive... he's gaining weight."

WHAT? Nice details, Leah. "He's doing well" would have been a fine answer. Instead I spewed out, "he's gaining weight" as if he was there specifically for that purpose.

As usual, I didn't get embarrassed until I got in my car and started thinking about what I had said. Aaaaaah.