Ten Ways I Exposed Myself to be a Dumbass

Voted for Bush in 2000
I still consider myself to be a Republican, but it is hard to be one when you are an atheist, pro-choice and pro-gay marriage. Even the Log Cabin Republicans won’t accept me in their ranks. In 2000, I voted for Bush because I did not like Gore’s “lock box” or his fiscal policies. I really didn’t vote for George Bush as much as I voted against Gore. I remember watching Bush’s inaugural address and thinking, “What did I just do?”

Got into a “debate” with a Truther
Holy crap. Do not under any circumstances get into a debate with a 9/11 Thruther. First off, there is no argument or scientific evidence you can provide that can’t be “countered” by a video on YouTube. Secondly, it seems that for every Thruther you start a conversation with, three more pop out of the internet with “friend of a friend” eyewitness reports, swearing to God that evidence of thermite residue was found in a burrito on 32nd street. And damnit… I hate getting called a sheeple. Or is the singular sheeperson?

Left “funny” AIDS voicemail on co-worker’s phone.
Years ago I was a supervisor over twenty or so part-timers. We had a change in a meeting time and I was calling all of the team to update them. I was attempting to be funny and left various prank messages with the new meeting time. When I called this particular team member, she did not answer so I left a message as “Doctor Ames” from the clinic and that her blood tests came back positive for AIDS and that she should come in at the new meeting time for her results. She did call me back. She called me back to say that her cousin had just died of AIDS and that she did not find my message very funny. I apologized, but it didn’t do any good. I am not smart. Dumbass.

Got caught jerking off when door was left unlocked
Without mentioning where, when, who or how; let just say the fact that I was making love to myself was pretty clear. Guys… lock the door or build the thing where you can put a 2x4 across the frame. Otherwise, your poor mother will be scarred for life and her poor boy will blindly rot in hell. (FYI, it was to a Cosmopolitan Magazine, the jerking material of choice for 13 year old boys since 1886.)

Hit reply all
I think that many people have fallen into this e-mail snafu. I had a pretty good relationship with my boss and felt like I could say anything to him. When an e-mail came around about some company wide changes, I felt obligated to reply to him and suggest he take the changes and shove them up his ass. Twelve other people got the “shove up your ass” reply that day. I did not get fired. But I did have to apologize for the e-mail. Of course, no one believed it.

Fell asleep on the couch… in the garage
This one takes a bit of explaining. I came home very late one night after being out. Usually, I pull my car into the garage and head in, but this night when I opened the garage door, there was a couch in my parking spot. We had just bought a new couch and were donating the old one to the Salvation Army. The couch dudes were kind enough to stick the old couch in our garage for easy pickup. I parked in the driveway, closed the garage door and slunk inside. Usually I would then creep to the couch so that I would not wake up Miss Sally, but upon entering the house, I remember her mother was spending the night and she was asleep on the couch in front of the television. My solution? Sleep on the couch… in the garage.

I remember waking up in almost total darkness. A long, thin crack of bright light poked me in the eye. I thought, “Where the fuck am I?” I was a little freaked out. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I recognized a car shape. I shuffled to the door and walked inside. It was 10:00am and my wife and her mother were standing in the kitchen staring at me. Oh boy.

Used debit card at the nudie bar
In one of the greatest nudie bar adventures of my life, I went to the Landing Strip in Romulus, MI. Needless to say, it was a very, very good time. At one point in the night, I had run out of the cash I brought and needed, desperately it seemed, to buy a drink for a young lady. Instead of taking out cash from the ATM that charged $20 a pop, I started a tab. I bought a drink for me and a drink for her. Probably around $30. About five days later, Miss Sally called me to say she had tried to buy something and we had insufficient funds. I checked our account and the Landing Strip was holding my card for $500!!!! I about shit my pants. I called them up and was put in touch with the manager. She assured me that I was not being charged $500, but that was the hold that they put on my card and it would disappear once the charge went through. I had to explain this to Miss Sally. Oh boy.

Thought I was going to vote for Guiliani
Six months ago, Guiliani was my man. He’s got some of the qualities I hold dear: gruff, wise ass, son-a-bitch, kinda pro-life and kinda gay marriage. And he can beat Hillary in an election. But then I actually decided to read about him and the bottom dropped out. He started to change his opinions. He started to hem. He started to haw. I thought it was a joke that every other word out of his mouth was 9/11 until it started to happen with every word. The final straw was him answering his cell phone during a speech. Idiot. I just might end up voting for Ron Paul.

Separated from John in Europe
John and I went to Paris in the fall of 1993. Due to some sleeping issues on the flight over (I slept the whole way and he didn’t sleep at all) we were on completely different schedules. He would wake up around 4:00am local time and I would wake up at 10:00am. He would go to bed at 7:00pm and me at 1:00am. This gave us about six hours of waking time together during the day. Due to some other inconvenient planning, we spent eleven days in Paris without traveling outside the city limits. By that time we were sick of Paris and sick of each other. He wanted to go to London and I wanted to go to Spain. We argued and in the end, we parted ways. He had a great time in London, mostly. I had a great time in Spain, mostly. But I love (hate?) to think about the trouble we would have gotten into if we could have agreed to stick together and pick one destination over the other.

Did not step into a fight
In seventh grade, my friend and I were kicking a soccer ball back and forth. Three bullies came along and took the ball. Fred stood up to the biggest one of them and tried to get the ball back. The bully pushed back and his buddies helped to rough up Fred. I hung my head and did not intervene. Fred kept getting shoved to the ground, but he kept getting up. Finally he stayed down and they laughed and walked away. I will never forget my cowardice that day. Dumbass.