Most Awkward Travel Moment – Kindle 3G Giveaway!
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Last week I was contacted by a woman named Nicole on behalf of Mitchum and she asked if I’d be interested in running a giveaway for my readers in order to promote the Mitchum Love thy Pits campaign!
Whether stressed, scared, bothered or nervous, armpits let you know and yet they have been largely overlooked, until now… Mitchum is encouraging you to “Love Thy Pits” with the new Advanced Control™ stick/solid antiperspirant and deodorant, providing 48 hours of protection for men and women. Formulated to go on and stay dry, Mitchum Advanced Control combines the highest level of active ingredient available in the marketplace with encapsulated fragrance technology that bursts upon contact with perspiration, helping pits navigate even the trickiest of situations with maximum strength and ultimate protection for 48 hours.
DO YOU WANT TO WIN A…
Amazon Kindle 3G?
Seriously, who doesn’t love FREE stuff!? Especially a FREE Kindle 3G! Once again, I’m wishing I could give it to myself, but I just do the “giving away” over here! All while YOU, the readers gather up all these cool prizes!
Details:
Fortunately, for you, there is an extremely simple 5-step process to enter this giveway! How bad do you want a FREE Kindle 3G? It will take you less than two minutes to ENTER!
1. We want you to share your MOST AWKWARD TRAVEL MOMENT with us in a comment below!
2. You MUST be a fan of Pause The Moment on Facebook.
3. You MUST share the link to the contest on your Facebook Wall encouraging your friends and family to enter!
4. You MUST click the “Like” button at the bottom of this post!
5. BONUS points go to entrants who click the Tweet button below and RT this post to their followers!
6. BONUS points go to entrants who “Like” Mitchum on Facebook!
Official Rules:
You must be at least 18 years of age or older and a resident of the United States to WIN. Multiple entries per household accepted (one per person). Entry period runs from 4PM EST on 8/8/11 and midnight 8/14/11. Once the winner is chosen, they will be contacted via e-mail with the news that they have won a Kindle 3G from Pause The Moment and Mitchum!
Winners must claim their prize within three business days after the date of notification of such prize. A winner’s failure to respond to the prize notification within the specified three business days will be considered such giveaway winner’s forfeiture of the prize and an alternate winner may be selected from the pool of eligible entries.
So… what’s your most awkward travel story?
I was traveling in prop plane going to a remote part of Alabama. We hit turbulence and I grabbed the stranger’s hand sitting next to me. After he calmed me down and I got over the embarrassment we started to talk. He was a Soldier going home on leave. He gave me his address and asked me to write to him.
ON driving home from a reunion with my grandmother my sister and I told her we needed to use the restroom. She suggested we pull over and that we (ages 17/15 at the time) go on the side of the road. As we looked across the desert wasteland we were traveling through..just a bunch of sagebrush-not even large enough to hide behind..we decided we would just hold it and that we didn’t really need to go that badly….and it was another 2 hrs to the nearest town. I guess we survived.
I was on a road trip to Indiana with my Dad and Brother and we were driving through Nebraska and my brother got car sick and threw up all over me. We pulled over on the side of the road so we could clean it up and I had to take all my clothes off so I was standing on the side of the road in my boxers. I heard a hissing noise and saw that the rear tire was deflating so I had to change the tire in my boxers.
I was on a cruise with my husband. We went to dinner and sat at a table with 3 other couples. After dinner he told me he was embarrassed to sit next to me a dinner that night because he never realized how strong my Boston accent was!!
My husband and I were enjoying our idyllic winter vacation in Santa Fe, NM, when the unthinkable happened – we got both got the flu. Not your ordinary flu, but a projectile-forming, uncontrollable, race-to-the-bathroom flu. It hit my husband first, so I immediately took him to urgent care. While waiting for the nurse, the “flu” struck again, this time hitting me, and completely covering my only winter jacket. :( I had to run to the front desk to find someone to help clean us up. (AWKWARD MOMENT #1) Just as he was starting to feel better, this horrible sickness moved on to me. We had to cancel our reservation at Ojo Caliente’s hot mineral springs, and I spent New Year’s Eve with my head in a toilet. Yet unlike my husband’s speedy recovery, I required two IV’s at the nearest hospital, and some strong anti-nausea medicine. Unfortunately, the medicine only came in a rectal suppository form. Really? Really! (AWKWARD MOMENT #2) We can’t even THINK of Santa Fe without getting queasy…or embarrassed. Sheesh!
Travelling home from Florida our flight was cancelled bumping everybody to the next available fight. I didn’t realize I needed another boarding pass. Went to board the plane and held up the line while the flight attendant printed me another boarding pass. Got on the plane to find that my seat already had someone sitting in it. I had to stand at the back of the plane for a while until a flight attendant came appologizing for the mix up and moved me to business class. She told me I could sit in any available seat. I took the first seat I found and smelled something foul. After about 10 minutes of sitting in this stench, I looked down to see that my seat mate had his shoes off. He was stinking up the entire front end of the plane with his smelly feet. I didn’t know what to do, so I tried to act like I didn’t notice.
I was supposed to be flying to Pittsburgh for a work conference. I arrived at Logan airport for my 1 p.m. flight and found out it was cancelled. I explained to customer service I needed to get to Pittsburgh tonight so I could present at this conference. They booked me on a flight that stopped in Laguardia airpot in NY which had a 4 hour lay over before the next flight to Pittsburgh. I arrived at Lauguardia airport killed some time had lunch drank some wine and got my nails done. Come to find out my flight that is supposed to leave at 6 p.m. is cancelled! I spent the next hour trying to get back to Boston (thank god i was able to get home that night) So I basically flew from Boston to NY to have lunch and get my nails done on a Sunday afternoon!
I went to Universal Studios Japan a few years ago, and while on one of there big roller-coasters; the man sitting next to me went to grab for the safety harness to hold on, but instead grabbed my face and proceeded to hold on for the entire ride squeezing tight. I tried to get him off my face but failed, and he didn’t realize until the ride came to a stop. It made the ride a little uncomfortable, but he apologized a lot at the end.
While enjoying the beautiful beaches of Riviera Maya Mexico, my wife and I couldn’t imagine anything more beautiful. Well come to find out, we were enjoying our honeymoon during the SWINE FLU outbreak in Mexico. The resort did not feel it was necessary to tell us that we were in “contamination central” (maybe figuring the amount of alcohol we would be consuming would probably kill any virus that had gotten into our system anyway). As the final days of our honeymoon dwindled down, we became increasingly worried that this SWINE FLU outbreak would consume us as well. From there on out we watched everything we touched, ate, and drank (well, almost everything we drank). So, during our departure from Mexico, all we heard was how bad this flu was becoming and how much of an epidemic it would be. Basically anyone who had recently been in Mexico should just say a 10,000 Hail Mary’s and hope for the best. We felt like lepers our entire flight home. It was almost like the people we were sitting with on the plane knew exactly where we came from and exactly what we might or might not have. It took every ounce of my being to not cough or sneeze the entire flight. Not fun. So to end this awkward story, my wife and I were picked up at the airport by a limo to then bring us home. As the car pulled away, the driver began his normal chit-chat and he became almost ecstatic to talk about the SWINE FlU that was breaking out in Mexico and how much it has been on the news. He couldn’t stress enough how he had absolutely no desire to ever go near the Mexican border as long as he lives. Although awkward, I understood where he was coming from. I knew it was only a matter of time before he asked my wife and I were we spent our honeymoon. Not a minute more went by before…”So were are you guys coming back from?” I had to be truthful and answered…Mexico. I have never seen that back window roll up so fast in my life. As you can expect, the rest of the car ride home was silent. He wouldn’t even accept the tip. I can only imagine how much cleaning products he purchased to sanitize the areas we had been sitting.
I was in Belize with my family a while back when we were younger. Both my brother and I had long hair then, and when ordering, our waiter called us girls, not realizing that we were both boys. It provided for an awkward but funny dinner.
During a month long backpacking trip around Europe, my best friend and I were on a train from Italy to Switzerland. It had been a long night the night before and we were using the time on the train to rest. After closing my eyes, I drifted off to sleep only to be woken up shortly after by a man that was rubbing my feet! I was so shocked and surprised I didn’t know what to do. My friend looked over and she and I exchanged a horrified expression. When I asked the man what he was doing, he replied in very broken English that he was trying to relax me – relax me, while I am sleeping?!? It was very clearly an attempt at a pick up (a really creepy attempt at that). It was absolutely the most awkward situation I have ever encountered. I had to politely ask him to let go of my feet and to kindly leave us alone. He was insistent on providing back rubs and massages, but with the help of my friend we finally got him to leave. While on that trip to Europe I learned to not only watch your luggage, but also your feet while on the trains!
In Hawaii, my daughter had to go to the bathroom. We were in a desolate part of the big island with no place to go. She was young at the time, so we said, go behind the car – no one will see –
She learned a lot about wind direction that day and where the phrase came from “not to pee into the wind.” Needless to say she had a wet journey home. :)
My most awkard travel moment was in Chicago Airport when I asked where the shuttle service was to the hotel. The lady thought I was dumb for not seeing the sign across the grassy patch in the dark.
To say that I’m not the greatest traveler on airplanes would be an understatement . To make matters worse, I wasn’t able to get a seat next to my friends on a recent trip to Mexico. I was feeling a little anxious, so I took some melatonin to help me fall asleep. I must have really been knocked out because I slept in an extremely awkward position. I woke up with my head on the shoulder of the stranger sitting next to me. And a HAND was on my FACE! I was still groggy and quite alarmed at this random hand pushed up against my cheek. I screamed – LOUDLY. As the flight attendant rushed to my assistance and passengers around me stared, I came to realize the hand on my face was my own. It had fallen asleep due to my awkward positioning and was totally numb. The rest of that flight was more than a little awkward for everyone involved. I have never been so happy to put my feet on solid ground!
I took a group of 10 yo girls, including my daughter, and all their mothers to Ecuador. We were leaving the country at midnight to return to the US when my daughter was called up to the desk at the boarding gate and asked to accompany the security guy somewhere. “There was a problem with her bag.” Of course, I went with her as they took us outside the terminal and over to a place where dogs were sniffing all the bags. My bag, not hers, was standing alone and I was asked to identify it. Our luggage tags had been switched and the dogs smelled something suspicious in my bag. (At that moment I remembered the animal skins I had purchased in a local music store,to replace the heads on my broken African drum at home!) I was asked to empty my bag. I watched them handle & open all the contents EXCEPT the shopping bag with the animal skins. Lo & behold, they never noticed the skins, and I was able to bring the skins home.
During a brief visit to Vegas we stayed downtown for the first time. It was a great stay until I suddenly became ill with the flu. Fortunately we were able to arrange another night’s stay at the hotel and to change our flight. I love traveling and meeting new people. Not in this way however. It was quite awkward while in bed trying to rest when a strange man and woman opened our hotel room door, stopped, and wondered out loud why the room was dark and I got out of bed and stuck my head around the corner & said, Hello? I scared the lady half to death with my appearance in the dark. They both shouted at me and asked me why I was there. I meekly said it was my room. Without a word they hustled out the door and to the front desk, I presume. I called my husband on his cell and asked him to go to the front desk to see if things were handled. Whew! Scared me also!
A couple years ago some friends and I went on a fishing trip to Canada. We flew into Winnipeg and drove the rest of the way from there. At our destination, we flew in a small plane to a really remote area, without any electricity. We caught a lot of fish, and our Indian guide’s wife smoked them for us, since there was no electricity. We packed the fish in a styrofoam cooler, and checked it with our luggage. Upon arriving at O’Hare, we were greeted by some not-so-happy representatives from the airline. It seems our cooler had opened up in the cargo hold. It also seems the wood that our Indian friend used to smoke the fish was quite… pungent. We were informed that the entire hold, as well as everyone else’s luggage, now strongly shared that pungent odor. What could we say? Sorry. The worst part was it smelled so bad that we had to throw it all away, wasting the fruits of our awesome trip.
Years ago in my youth, I was in London taking a very long tube journey to a stop nearly at the end of one of the lines. When I got on it wasn’t too crowded, but started filling up as we traveled. At some point an elderly couple got on and nobody offered them a seat at all. I sat there debating what to do. I would have offered them mine, but I was just a little out of range to do be able to do so without awkwardness. But really by out of range it was pretty borderline and maybe I should have offered anyhow. But it would have involved some yelling and pointing and just didn’t seem right.
As the train hit each stop, more and more people got off but not the elderly couple. Eventually seats opened up and they were able to sit down. They were talking at looking at everyone remaining on the train (with reproachful, judge-y looks).
Of course they were still on the train by the time we reached my stop and I had to get up and walk past them to exit the car. Now I felt really bad and embarrassed. So I grabbed my bag and headed towards the exit pretending that I had a severely gammy leg. I limped off the train and halfway down the station. It wasn’t until the train had completely left the station before I resumed my normal walk.
Honestly, I was trying to do the right thing. I didn’t want the couple to think people weren’t giving up their seats purely out of laziness or rudeness. Needless to say, the whole thing was kind of awkward.