Embarassing Moment!

Before I share this moment with you, you have to understand something about my husband. Mike is a tie snob. He has an incredibly picky standard of what's acceptable and what's not, and frankly, he thinks that most of corporate America - scratch that, most of the world - is sadly lacking in taste. He has flat out told me that I am never allowed to buy him a tie because he doesn't think I could find one he would like. If we're ever in a store with ties, I'll look with him, but I've only found 1 or 2 that he thinks are acceptable. The rest of the ones I suggest he wrinkles his nose at and says no. (That's part of why I picked this particular tie for the graphic. Besides being a tie for the Man of Steel, it's also a tie that Mike would HATE!)

Now that you understand Mike, I can share this funny moment. :)

We were at the mall in Ames today. I went over to Claire's while Mike stayed in Younker's (a girl's gotta look at her earrings!). When I was done, I went back to Younker's, where Mike was in the tie section. I joined him over there and was looking at all the ties with him. However, I kept my mouth shut. By now I know better than to offer suggestions to him!

Just behind Mike was a couple (probably about our age). I don't think he could see them. The girl (lady? woman? what do you call someone my age?) had a tie in her hand and walked over to a stack of shirts to check the tie against a color. Now they're standing kind of behind me. They are talking quietly to each other, but Mike isn't paying any attention to them. He has his head down looking at ties.

All the sudden, the girl says (kind of loudly) to the guy, "Hey, these ties are even on clearance!" Without looking up, Mike responds (loudly), "There's a reason they're on clearance, you know." I throw him a startled look, begging him with my eyes to be quiet, but he finishes with, "They're all ugly!"

I look at him, absolutely mortified, go grab his arm, and kind of rush him away from the tie section. He's looking at me like, "What?!" I hiss, "They heard you!" Then it finally begins to dawn on Mike. He thought I was the one who said the ties were on clearance! He thought he was telling me that they were ugly, not some complete stranger across the tie section!

For about 30 seconds, he didn't even believe me when I said that I wasn't the one who said the ties were on clearance. He finally decided to believe me, and he was duly embarassed. (That's a feat! Mike does not embarass easily!) We laughed about it the entire way home! The poor tie-picking strangers - I hope they weren't scarred for life!