What social faux pas did you do today?

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i went to a meeting today (for my I.T. job) , and i had to sit in the tea room until the CEO was ready to attend. there were a number of "important" people also waiting in the tea room (who were the clients that the meeting was designed to accommodate).

a person started to talk to me, and i tried to oblige him by listening to what he said.
he was the "boss " of the clients contingent, and he was rattling off many words aimed at my head, and i did not want to listen to him, but i persisted in not telling him that i was not interested, and i listened as best i could.

he said during his conversation "but considering i was a former refugee, i had to provide..etc", and i heard it as "but considering i was a former F.U.G, i had to provide"..la la la la (whatever he said)

i spent much time on trying to figure out what F.U.G stands for, and i listened to nothing else he said because i was obsessed with working out what i thought was an acronym, and when i reported the situation to my girlfriend, she told her mother who spoke to me and straightened out the matter for me.

the meeting went well, but that man did not like me much, however the other people did.

A co-worker and I went to get some lunch, and had an exchange that went something like this (I'm paraphrasing):

Co-worker: You know what's been bad on my wallet?
Me: *pulls out own wallet to show how tattered it is*
Co-worker: Mine is in good shape, but that's not what I mean...

He, of course, was speaking metaphorically about something that cost him a lot of money...

I sat in a coffee shop today and studied mathematical philosophy while stimming by hand flapping.

I didn't care what people thought.

Social faux pas? Maybe.

Cried in front of a mutual friend of my brother's and mine. I was upset because of a family emergency that happened last night, but I had been doing a good job of holding it together until about 15 minutes before they came home from school.

I feel bad for making them feel awkward.

I had to have minor surgery on my foot a week ago. (pinkey toe amputation)
I posted it on facebook the next day and my parents got mad because I didn't tell them right away. (I didn't see them until a few days later) I didn't see what the problem was at first because I posted it on facebook so they would know what was going on.

Sometimes I can clearly pinpoint a social faux pas or error I have made and other times I feel slightly unsure and sometimes I have no clue. Since I know I am quiet and shy that to me feels like a continual social anomaly, well mostly to outgoing NTs I would be a social anomaly. Hmmm... :

Examples of things that are clearly a social faux pas:
- interrupting in a conversation
-accidentally stepping ahead of someone in line at the store

I'm not positive this was a faux pas, but if past experience bears up it probably was: I was in conversation with coworker-1 who praised coworker-2 for being "so amazingly smart". Coworker-2 isn't a dunderhead but I also wouldn't say they are amazing. They've frequently given me incorrect information.
I was lukewarm in my response so coworker-1 reiterated their position about coworker-2. I did my best to seem in agreement but I suspect that I wasn't convincing enough because coworker-1 continued to push the point. Honestly, I didn't know what they wanted from me. Sure, whatever, #2 is smart. Why do you need my validation for that?

I was at a friends house today helping him with his car. Once we were done we went to the front porch to relax. It was me, my friend and his wife. There were tools on the floor and as usual I grabbed a random tool to have something to do with my hands. I grabbed a ratchet and started slowly turning it and making it click. I started zoning out an staring at nothing in particular.
All of a sudden, my friend started laughing. That snapped me out of it and I said something like "What, did I miss something?"
"Yeah..... A lot." He said.

Apparently his wife asked me something and I totally ignored her for like 30 seconds.

i continuously raise people's eyebrows every day, but the circumstances in which that happens are usually mundane.

i will say the things i remember from today, and then i will describe the 2 most serious social infractions that i incurred last month.

____________
today:

i was in a new supermarket (the most local supermarket to my new house (which is just a very large corner store)), and there was a song on the store's p.a system. the song was "born free", and as i was browsing the shelves, i listened to the song, and i realized i always had the wrong idea about the lyrics of that song (i was never a fan of the song per se).

when i got to the check out, (there was only one girl because it is a relatively small supermarket (she is quite gothic in appearance)) the girl seemed very friendly and i said "i always thought the words were 'born free..as free as the window..,..' but now i realize that it is 'as free as the wind blows', so just those thanks" (referring to my goods).

she said "ahhhhh ok.", and i paid for my goods. i know she had no idea what i was talking about.
..........
#2 at the same shop at the same general time.

i realized as i was walking out of the shop that i forgot to buy my chocolate milks and coffee milks (600 ml cardboard cartons), and so i then went to the milk fridge and secured those items (4) and went back to the counter to pay for them.
the checkout girl was dealing with another customer at that point, and so i waited for her to attend to me.

while i was waiting, i heard some of her conversation with the other customer, and she said "yeah he came in this morning and bought his bread and milk, and he looked ok, blah blah blah blah etc" and i stopped listening, and less than a second after i stopped listening, the checkout girl turned to me and laughed as if i was privileged to the entire content of her previous conversation with the other customer, and she said something to me that i did not understand (i can not remember what), and she acted as if she had known me for a long time but i had never met her before, so my reply to her was "indeed, i'll just get these thanks" (referring to the 4 milks).
the smile fell off her face like a fried egg out of a teflon saucepan.
i will see her again often because i live near that supermarket now.


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in recent times these are the worst:

1. i was watching my TV at lunch time a few weeks ago, and i saw on the news that a young boy was ran over by a car in a location that i realized was less than 200 meters from my driver's residential address. later on that afternoon, i rang him as usual to tell him what he was going to be doing the next day, and there was no answer.
i started to worry that it may have been his boy that got run over (but not killed), and so i rang my supplier who is personal friends with my driver, and i reported my worries to him. he said that he had no information, and then i said (this was the serious faux pas) "how the hell will i find another driver by tomorrow if it was his kid?!?!", and as you can guess and as i can retrospectively see, that response elicited a very negative reaction from my supplier who said "are you serious mate?!?! jeezus!?!?", and i said i would think about it further, and that was the most serious one for the past month.

i would definitely care if it was my diver's child that was hit. i could not convey that to the supplier after i said what i said.

_________
i can not be bothered to describe the worst one of the year because i am now tired.

This is a common social mistake what a lot of people, NT or Aspie or other, make. Today I was standing at a crossing waiting to cross the road, and a man was standing outside a nearby newsagents and a young girl was standing a few feet away from him, and as I looked towards the man to see if any traffic was coming, I caught him looking towards me in the corner of my eye then he said, ''hello there, love, you all right?'' and I smiled and said, ''hi ya'', only to realise he wasn't looking at me or speaking to me, he was looking at the young girl who was standing in my direction, because I heard her respond and start up small talk with him, and I was like, ''oops.'' Feeling silly, I crossed the road as quick as I could. I don't think they heard me speak, thank God. I know I shouldn't feel silly if they didn't hear, but I still knew I done it and so I still felt silly.

The man was squinting because of the sunlight, so that was why I couldn't quite tell who he was looking at.

Okay, it wasn't today but yesterday was my son's 21st birthday... a big landmark for him. I so totally suck at holiday and social events. I really didn't plan anything special for him because I never do those things well. Then a friend of his planned a big BBQ and invited all his other friends over and supplied beer for the party and all the food and even invited me and hubby. It was a great party, but I later felt like a total loser because I just showed up at the party, didn't think to bring anything, and didn't even remember to buy my son a card. I did give him a laptop for his birthday about a week ago, but I just couldn't seem to get it together to create some sort of celebration to indicate that I was aware that my only son was now a man.

And I did a lot of "hiding" at the party... that's what I do. I find a remote corner of the gathering, where I can see most of what is going on and there is NO opportunity for anyone to approach me without me seeing them coming (so I can start thinking up things to say).

I was there for several hours since my whole family (including 2 granddaughters) was there and yet in all that time, I couldn't find the food or the drinks. I always seemed to "miss" when everybody was getting food. I can't figure out what was going on... I would be inside and come to find out, everybody was outside eating. So I'd head outside, but there was no food other than what was on their plates... there was nothing out anywhere that I could see where I could get myself a plate of food, so I ate what my granddaughter left on her plate.

I have NO germ phobias and I found myself pinching partial drinks I found people leaving behind because I didn't know where they were getting cups from or where the drinks were.

The whole day was very trying and exhausting. When I left, I drove through McDonalds and got myself a burger and a coke... the first real meal I'd had all day...

B9's post reminds me of a time when I misheard someone, when she was telling me where she worked. I thought she said, 'A spa shop'. So there I went off talking about jacuzzis and how I saw a whirlpool getting to delivered to a neighbour and they had to us a crane and lift it over the top of the house... She stood there, looking blank, then said, 'No, I manage a Spar shop'. Spar is a small supermarket chain (I mean the supermarkets are very small, the chain is large).

I know that Aspies seem to have a tough time on the phone. I can't ever understand some people on the phone and I end up without a clue what they are talking about... and so I go into the "Uh-huh" routine. I seem to always end up giving a Yes/No answer to an essay question... And I get caught out... I'll say " yeah..." and then the other party will stop and say "What???", then I end up having to admit that I didn't have a clue what they said and it goes downhill from there...

I hate the phone.