Embarrising Moments When We Take Life Too Literally.

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For me it has to be when I worked for a sports store as a bike mechanic/sales assistant. We started working in the retail chain store and they were still finishing off building it. I put my hands on a freshly painted surface... Which had to be repainted... That's how new it all was. We were all newly employed staff and speciffically chosen for the departments we were going to work in.
We were shown around. Part of this tour involved looking at the managers office where we were shown a phone which would dial out the store (Of all the phones in the store only three could dial externally). Near the phone was a fax machine which was about 2ft x 2ft by about 1 1/2ft high. It looked the size of the old desktop photocopiers they used to make in the 1980's. I had heard of fax machines but didn't actually know what they did, so rather then make myself seem stupid in front of everyone, I waited and then I asked a co-worker. He was a little younger then me but he seemed to know as he said "You can fax things to people".
Well, I had done computer studies at school which involved either Commodore Pets or the then new in BBC Micro...(Which we had to program in basic) And then in college I used the early forms of CAD CAM as by then technology was growing soo fast, and then I did a couple of years in a bike shop and then half a year as a postman... So in the four or so years I had been outside of the technical advances... Well. This fax machine seemed to have taken things to a new level! I absolutely marvelled at how advanced technology had become! "Wow! I just have to try this!" I thought to myself...
I quickly found myself being promoted to being in charge of the bicycle department as the lady who was in charge didn't know much about the mechanical side, but she was great at organizing, and she was promoted to be the new deputy manager which really suited her tallents.
Now in my new position, I quickly discovered that not only was our store new, but right round the country all the other stores on my list were also new, and so was our head office who also didn't really know what they were doing either! However, my nearest store on the list had taken advice from one store in Bristol about 100 miles away where they used to do the exact same thing and were the omly store to be taken over , and the guys there found themselves doing the same things, even dealing with most of the same suppliers so they basically knew the ropes. The guy on the bike department was friendly so I was able to ask a few things... Anyway. For another reason I had phoned the head office and the guy there asked me a question to see if I knew something as he was learning... So I said I would try to find out. I phoned the Bristol store and asked and they had the answer, so I told the guy in charge of bikes the answer... And then it started to become hillarious. I had not told the head office I had rung the Bristol stoee to ask, so any questions the new 150+ stores located right round Britain and Northern Ireland had to the head office... They would pass on my store details and my name etc, and I would say I would phone them back... Ask Bristol... Phone them back with answers... I was speaking to so many different stores like this that I hardly had time to do my own work... I heard so many different accents from right round the UK... Haha! Eventually I thought it was much easier if they phones Bristol direct, but by then half the answers I knew the answers to... So things started to ease a little.
Now as we carried very few spare parts in store, any new bicycles which came in from the manufacturers with a damaged or broken part, I would choose a single bike that was the hardest to repair and take parts off that bike as it was far easier as a temporary measure. Now my manager asked about rhis bike and I said what I had done. It was an LTS which were made by Universal Cycles. My manager said to phone them up.
This was my first phone call in my official position as head of the bike department, and I had it in my head that I should act professional on the phone, and besides, I wanted to give a good impression of myself as I will be contacting companies like this quite often in times to come. So I rang them up full of confidence (Masking as I actually tend to shy away from phones!.. So I had my "Official" mask on!) and aas put through to the gentleman who was in charge of supplying parts. I explained the situation in my new found official voice... (Hehe! I chuckle thinking about it!) and the man said "Ok, I will send a lorry out to collect the bike"...
Well. I really wanted to impress and he had just given me an excuse to try something... And impress the man at the same time... so I replied "No worries. We have a FAX machine! I can "FAX" it to you!"
Well, you know when you get those silences on the other end of the phone where you have said or done something but can't quite make out what you have said or done....? Well, I had one of them untill the guy said "Ok. You do that then".
I then politely said my goodbyes and with hjs fax number in hand, I started wheeling the bike to the managers office.
Once I got the bike in the managers office, there wasn't a great deal of room. I picked the bike up in my hands and I stood there holding it in front of the fax machine. No sooner had I thought "How the... How are my going to fit this big adults bike inside that fax machine?" when the door opened and in came my manager who rather surprized said something that in a polite way means "What are you doing with that bike in my office?"
I told him I was faxing it to Universal cycles...
"You have not used a fax machine before have you?" he said... While I so wanted to say otherwize so I didn't feel stupid, but I had to admit that I had not used one before.
He then spent the next fidteen minutes explaining what it does and how to use it. Then it dawned on me..
I asked my manager "Umm. You couldn't phone Universal Cycles up foe me to explain?". He smiled and said "No, that's your job!"
Wow. What an embarissing phonecall I then had to make.. I forgot about all the official masking.. I got through.
"Ummm. Tell you what. I think we're going to need that lorry after all!" I said and quickly ended the conversation! I was soo embarised!

Is this event of mine typical of being on the spectrum or could anyone fall for the same mistakes? Do you have similar stories you would like to share? It would be nice to hear them!

Sorry. I wrote too much. It is amusing.. Use it as a bedtime story!
Umm. Am I the only one this has happened to? I mean... Not what I wrote about, but the title.