Category: Let's talk
Confession time: everyone tell their embarrassing cane travel, dog travel, or general travel stories. Here's mine. Yesterday I made the acquaintance of a staircase in my dorm by falling down it backwards. Then there was the time in high school when I whacked right into a fire door, or the time more recently when I got so lost I nearly walked off campus. So, how about you?
Hmmm, well... This just recently happened yesterday when i was going to this workshop for college. I was just about to proceed across the street and this woman approaches me, trips over my cane, breaks it, and then tells me to get out of the way and calls me a blindy... it was funny, but yet embarrassing because i obviously didn't mean to trip her. it's also embarassing when a person is walking along with their cane and they get it between someone elses legs
Ive fell in a pool in Italy, incidently the same pool I'd been navigating around since aged 15! My Italian family thought this was great crack and jumped in ..for days afterwards I had the mick taken out of me by my cousin 10 yr old Giancarlo..who said Dont worry Sandro, I guide you past the pool, and the snakes.
I think the funniest parts for me are when I end up walking into signs at the mall, the ones that they have sticking out at store doorways, because I usually end up almost knocking them down since my cane doesn't catch them right away. But that must look funny or at least weird to people who see me do that. *laughs* But the embarrasing times are when people are running and trip over my cane. I feel bad when they trip, but another part of me says they should try to pay more attention to where they're going. Another thing, I guess it would also had to do with mobility in a way, (this is more of an annoyance thing), is when people are talking, and then they see you coming, and they stop talking! That one gets to me, but I always think it's wierd when people do that.
here we award 10 points to anyone who walks into a sign, and believe me I'm in the lead, with the bruises to prove it.grin
i walked to a record store with my uncle. see, his foot wis limp because of arthritis. so he fell ontop a big stand of CD's and all the CD's were all over the place. and all the clients were acting weird.
Well, there are always the times when I apologize to doors or other inanimat objects, hahahaha! Or there was the time that I tripped this one lady in the London airport accidentally obviously, and she got up and was like, "would you watch where you're going?" it's like, um, no? I have blindly knocked over this one glass bottle once, not with my cane but still. oh yeah and there was the time I turned the wrong way on the way to the bus stop, therefore missing the bus, yeah that sucked.
oh my gosh. there was the time i wondered over to sainsburys and i thought it'd be an amazing idea to run, i run and smacked straight into a lamp post. i was so embarrassed. this person on the other side of the road laughed at me, and of course, i've apologised to the odd door, thinking it was a person.
my worst time happenee when i was young. there was a dorm teacher at the blind school who everyone hated and she was very old. One day during home coming weekend we were walking and she leaned over to pick up something and while leaning i moved my cane a little bit not meaning to and she totally fell. It wasn't funny but she starting crying and saying i did it on purpose. My friends teased me for weeks but actually i felt bad.
Cane travel disasters. Hmmmmmmmm.... I've fallen off of the end of a dock into a lake. I've ended up on top of a car! I've tripped a few sighted people by accident and once, ended up in a girl's locker room at a pool because I got a bit disoriented and went in the wrong direction. Unfortunetly, they weren't pleased to see me very much! Ha! (although they should have been....he he.... it could have been really fun...)
lol. I'm in high school, and I can't help but laugh my ass off when people are running, or are walking backwards and trip over my cane. And I'm not embarrassed when my cane goes between people's legs, we just kinda laugh. I was at the blind school in my state for a trial thinggy, and we were walking back from I hop, and the O and M lady let me get lost, and made me find my way back, and I was embarrassed when I finally did manage to find my way again. now I'm done, byes
hahahaha lol. there was the time at worcester college, uk, when i was new there. everyone had just left me, and i went out of chapel and turned the wrong way, instead of walking towards the entrance hall, there were some stairs, and i just completely tripped down them and sprained my ankle, the worst thing was, my maths teacher's classroom was right next to the stairs, and he opened the door to let a class out, and i was just lying there in absolute agony.
My embarrassing moment was when I was 19 years old. I was walking home with my collige friends.
At the time I just learned the root from the front door up to my appartment which was on the 5th floor.
So I decided to show off my newly developed skill. I got as far as the lift and my floor no problem, but once I got out of the lift, I went tumbling down the stairs.
I haven't hurt myself because
My friends didn't let me, but it was rather embarrassing. Serves me right for showing off and not paying attention!
I'm also very imbarrissed when my cane goes between people's legs.
In addition to this, I find it very embarrassing when I'm walking with a sighted guide and my breast brushes their arm.
I always kind of stretch my arm a bit so it doesn't happen.
Finally about a year ago I was at a bus stop and a bus came along. Before I knew what hit me, this guy lifted me on to the bus and touched my breast while doing it.
Not only edid I found it embarrassing, I also found
it creepy! It seemed to me he did it on purpose.
I was also very anoyed because I am quite capable of negosiating a step or 2 while getting on a bus myself for heaven's sake!
Now I always tell people at the bus stop that if they can only guide me to the bus door, I then can get on myself.
That's my 2 cent's worth.
Maria.
Well I think my most embarassing moments were falling off the curb on my way back to the Stan Bell Centre which was our hall of residence when me and Sheelob were at Loughborough. I was wearing very high heeled boots and I tripped and fell on my knees in the road in front of one of the care staff and a couple of people who were on assessment! damn! The second time, I tripped ovwer a curb on the way over to College with an LSA and tore a huge great hole in my jeans! cringe!
Hey, GuitarGod1, Do you really expect us to believe that that lockerroom incident was purely by accident? rofl OH, and how the hell did you end up on top of a car? That, I'd really like to have explained to me, as I'm trying to picture it, and failing. Goblin, yeah, pools, they will move right in front of you if you're not careful. I have two pool stories. 1. I was walking near an out of doors pool at one of the summer camps I attended, and another girl ran up to me and said "Hey, I know who you like, and I'm gonna go tell him." Even though there was noone that fit that discription at the camp, I was nine at the time, I proceeded to give chase. She dashed past the pool, and I dashed into it. 2. The other pool story is a bit more amusing. I was wearing a floor length cream colored dress, and holding a glass of champagne, which adds considerably to it's commeadic value. We were at a party, and as we were in someone's home, indoors, the last thing I expected to have to worry about encountering was a pool in the middle of the living room. The act was amusing, but the delivery was even better. My friend claims that she has it on tape, because they were recording the party. She called to me from across the room: "Heather, come over here and defend the Bard, we have a Shakespeare hater in the house." I responded with: "I shall not stand for it, long live the bard, aaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Splash. Needless to say my decleration and accompanying charge were abruptly cut short. In a hurry for class I once ran into the rehearsal hall late, took the seat closest to the back, and plunked my self right down in the lap of one of the most accomplished, attractive and saught after male students at Eastman. Worst of all he had been sleeping in class, shame on him, and I had rudely awakened him, shame on me. I shreeked, he hollored, and all heads in the room turned to, what must have appeared to be one of the ECMS students draped rather intimatly over one of the ESM students. To make matters worse, Brittany, my guidedog at the time decided to join us, and leaped into our collective lap. Well, that's enough self disclosure of the mobility disasters sort, for one evening. Have a nice trip! See you next fall!
Before I tell my mobility story I'd like to say that I hate cell phones. I once got on this elevator and this guy that was on it with me said, "Hey, how's it going today?"
I commenced to tell him my palfry life story in great detail, when he said, "Well, have you finished the quarterly report yet?" and I realized he was on a cell phone.
Okay, mobility stories, I've got a million of them.
One morning I had to rush to the bank to get them to correct a banking error on my account.
In a hurry, lest I miss the bus, I grabbed this collapsible cane that I hated. I had noticed that the cord in the middle was getting frayed, but figured it was good for one more trip. Boy was I wrong!
Got down town, went to the bank, and upon leaving my cane got caught in the door and the cord broke. So I'm trying to get to the bus stop with four parts of a cane in my left hand, and my right hand groping in front of me to beat the band. I mean, I couldn't help it.
These movers saw me, and kindly taped my cane back together with moving tape. The cane was very very unstable, but it worked sort of.
So, I get to the bus stop, the bus is late, and it begins to rain cats and dogs.
When the bus does arrive, I am soaking wet, and have to cross a very busy street with no trafic.
As you can see, my day is getting worse by the moment.
In crossing the street, I accidentally touch this car, and the guy driving it says something to me. I thought he was going to give me directions or something so I went to his window and said, "What?"
And he says, "get your fucking hands off my car."
I walked to the front of his car and brought my cane down as hard as I could on the hood. The cane fell apart with pieces going everywhere. One of them flew back into the driver's window. I know, because I heard it hit, and he started yelling cuss words at the top of his lungs.
I ran across the street disregarding all the traffic. When I got home, I got drunk to either celebrate or forget.
That, perhaps, is my worst mobility experience.
Oh yeah, I hate when people are on cell phones and say high and I respond, then feel like a total idiot because their not talking to me. Let's see, when I was in high school, the bus pulled up, and I proceeded to walk smack into the closed bus door, it was my first day as a senior. lol. I love it when people run and trip over the cane, and then tell me to watch where I'm going. I just give them a look and say, "really?" One time I was at the store, and this kid was running full speed and tripped right over my cane and slid about 6 feet acroos the aisle. I about died laughing. But I'v also done the appologizing to objects when I've bumped into them. This one time, it was pouring down raining, and my friend and I ran all the way down this broken sidewalk to catch the bus, because it was already at the corner. Ok so I ran all the way down, and didn't trip once. But when I got to the bus, I tripped up the steps. lol
Hey LaMusiqueDuSoirTristeEtBelle. I especially enjoyed reading through your stories. LOL. Actually made me laugh out loud. *GRIN*
Wel, like the rest of you, I have a hard time deciding which story is best. Let's see. Once when I was in college, I was getting ready to accomapny a young lady who happened to be in a wheelchair. Well, I pushed her around campus, which was always fun. I wish I could have seen the looks we must have gotten. Anyway, one day, we were going into the music building. We were just crossing the driveway, when some (*'"!@ person parked his van at the curbcut. There we were, crossing the street. The girl screamed "Hey mister, could you please move your car?" He went off, ignoring her. She told me the license number of the car. Some big fraternity dude picked up her chair and put it on the sidewalk. We went into the building. The campus phonewas inaccesible to her, because it was too high off the ground. I dialed security, and she reminded me of the guy's license number. I don't know if he got ticketed, but damn, it sure felt good!
Christ, I love reading these stories. And they call us "poor blind people".
I think I have 2 different stories that would fall into this catigory. One time when I was still at FSDB, we had an event we had to go to, I can't remember what at the moment though, but the entrance to the building we had to go into had to different doors that lead into 2 completely different parts of the building. We were supposed to have gone upstairs, but I first of all opened the wrong door that lead into the DBS office, and then somehow managed to slip and land right on my rear end right in the doorway.
Then at one point after I got Cedar, I went somewhere with my bf, and we had just gotten on the bus, and I was completely unaware of what had happened until he came to me and told me that she had decided to drop a load.
So, I had to ask him twice where it was, because for some reason he wouldn't tell me, listen to peoples' comments coming from the back of the bus, and try my best to clean it up all the while hoping the driver wasn't going to be upset with me or end up ordering us off the bus.
oh god, that reminds me of one time, I went to visit a couple friends. Well I opened the screen door, preparing to knock on the main door. What I didn't know was that the main door was already open. So I flew through the opening and fell, and my friend's grandfather looked up and just said, "your friend's here," and then went back to reading. lol
The car incident occured when I was late to a lesson I was teaching. I ran out of the enttrence to work and ran down the steps. Someone had parked right at the bottom of the stairs and I ended up hitting the car, going so fast that i ended up on the bonnet! (the hood.) It was really funny when the pain died down...
Most mobility moments are funny after the pain dies down. Sometimes the pain is to the body, sometimes to the ego, and sometimes it's both.
everyone will surelly like this story. its very funny
I was going over to my diplomacy class on campus from a meeting i had with my vocational rehab councelor and the disability cordinater of the university on a monday afternoon.
Then, as i walked to class, I had no problem.
When i was at the middle of the way crossing the street, my cane made a weird sound and somthing bounced at me in the face. and then the cane started sticking on the floor to the point where it really became unusable.
So I went with the cane in the air just to try to manage my way to class but i felt kinda scared because my cane wasn't working.
So i called for help, no one was there yet. and a student asked me if i needed help and i said yah, my cane broke.
and had to grab her with the cane in the air and i was a little late for class.
and at ehe end of class, i noted to discover that my roller tip has totally broken off my cane. it was so so scary.
what would you all do if that happened to you?
I'd just try to get where I was going and ask for help if I could. lol, I bet that was scary.
well, this isn't really embarrassing, but a person in a car at a stop light for the street I was about to cross had some good loud music on. So, I started snapping my fingers. He turns down his music and says loudly. Hey man, i give ya props for keeping beat! I see ya snappen your fingers.
I'm laughing here! Well recently, I was walking to class and it was a windy day. My hair was crazy, so I reached my left hand back to get it out of my face. *slam* went my elbow into a hollow sounding pole thing, and some jerks on the other side of the walk said to each other "Oh, that had to hurt!" What is this, blind people's funniest videos? I was just telling a friend today about 2 funny blind stories. First, there's the time that my best friend and I were getting off a crowded metro (subways in DC) during rush hour. Some guy yells, "Step on my damn foot, why don't you!" "Sorry, guess I didn't see you there," I said with a smile. The friend ran yanking me along and announced I'd made a blind joke to an unknowing blind guy. Serves him right for yelling though. The other time, a drunken blind friend was attempting to navigate us home. When she walked us sideways off the curb and I told her she was going the wrong way, she told me to get us home. I flagged down a car that happened to be filled with giggling, rich serority girls. I joked, asked directions, got us home and lied to the best friend saying that we headed home later than expected. I sure wasn't going to tell her we'd been lost and flagged down serority girls!
LOl my daughter takes cane travel now and we were out with her teacher. She had just got her new folding cane and every chance she got she wanted to take it apart and put it back together. Well we walk a little behind her so we can watch how she is doing. Well this time I guess the earge to unfold that cane was to much for her and she thought we were farther away. So she stops and starts to pull her cane apart. She lift the cane up to pull from the middle and just then a lady is about to pass by and the end goes right in the ladys shirt and gets stuck. Does she let the lady help her Noooo she panics cause she thinks she's gonna get in trouble for playing with the cane and so she start pulling like mad trying to get it back. Lady is trying to keep her blouse on but all the pulling popped the buttuns and there she stood with her Blouse ripped open. The teacher and I ran over and just kept saying sorry. We even offered our coat but she was so upset she just stomped away. It was horrible to watch then but now the teacher and I can laugh about it.
I was walking down the hallway from class the other day and I usually walk pretty quickly because I just do. There was a girl sitting in the hall and she said,
"There's a desk there" I thanked her, walked a few feet then went back to trailing along the wall, and I nearly fell over the damn desk.
thank you informative girl for telling me the desk was there
Well, Guitar God, I too hae managed to fall onto a car. I was helping a friend of mine move into an apartment. I was walking across the loading dock to where I thought the moving van was. I remember thinking the walk was longer than I remembered, and next thing I knew I was airborne! I hit the roof of the car, and kinda bounced off. On my way to the ground, I pulled the chrome off the passenger door. Turned out the Car was a Mercedes Benz, owned by the owner of the building.
That's a good one motifated, in fact they're all good.
I was staying in this hotel, and early (I do mean early, about three a.m.) I went down to the desk for a pack of cigarettes.
On returning to my room, I thought I pressed the right button on the elevator (this was before ada and brailled elevators), but I was wrong. So, when I returned to my room I slipped my key in the door quietly, and pushed the door open; I think the door must have been unlocked. So, I walk into the middle of the room and I hear something funny, and I stop and listen, and what I am hearing is someone snoring. Oh, my God, I made an extremely hasty retreat. Now, when I travel, I bring a rubber band with me and slip it on my door knob when ever I leave the room. That will work until I meet the notorious rubber band thief.
Bob
Bob, I hate to say it, but I've met the thief already. I'm kinda paranoid, so I try to develop methods so if I screw up or one method of finding a location goes down the tubes, I've a back-up. Scared the hel out of me when the rubber band was gone, though.
Well if you're going to fall on a car, might as well fall on a classy car like a Mercedes benz or BMW or Jag etc. haha.
Hell yes. Nothing cheap about this crowd. We may be mobility-awkward, but wwe have fun while we are at it.
*laugh at blbobby* Well, as for me, I really don't have a favorite or particular incident, but I remember several interesting and funny ones for me. I've had where my cane must have been worn out and fell apart, and luckily it was at the library at the School for the Blind, so the librarian helped me back to my dorm. I've also run into and almost knocked over signs at the malls, ran into one of those low airconditioner vents at my high school, accidentally hit a sign down the stairs at the high school, and bumped into a large plastic trash can I didn't know would be there. At the time my cane was broken, I had a friend who was also blind and didn't have her can either, guide me to the cafeteria thru sighted guide, and that was funny to me. *smile* Actually, I do have a favorite one now that I'm thinking about it. One time, I was at a group meeting, as it was at a place that had a little walled river or lake, and I had taken my cane with me in the water because I'm scared when my feet don't touch the ground and didn't know how deep the water would be and I was in a little plastic canoe. Anyway, I think I was still nervous, so I got out of the canoe, and at some point I had let go of my cane. SO it turned out that we had to look for it and it was found soon after by another student.
holy crap lou! I've ended up on the hood of a car, but I didn't know what kind it was. A couple of my friends and I were standing outside of a bar, waiting for a cab. Well we were pretty drunk, and we started joking around. So one of my friends, he's sighted, he takes off running around the parking lot and I gave chase. I made it around a few times, but one time I didn't stay on the sidewalk long enough before I ran off the curb, and I ran right off the curb and smashed my knees into the front of a car and went up onto the hood.
Jen, you'd make a gorgeour hood ornament. Speaking of cars, I used to have a job going in and out of people's houses and teaching basic living skills. I had a ride to one person's appartment. Well, I got finished my lesson. I went outside in the event my wheels where there. They weren't. I asked someone if they saw a T-bird parked there. They asked me what color the car was. I forgot, and said so. She said, well, here's a blue one, do you think that could be it?" I thought so, but wasn't sure. I went to the car,opened the passenger door, and someone came out of the apartment building very irate: "What the *%@#!$ you doing busting into my car?" I backed away so they could see the cane, appologizing and explaining that I can't see.
rofl thanks! <smiles>
LOL these are great!
I have two embarrassing stories... one more scary than anything else. About a year and a half ago, I plunked down an obscene amount of money for a cane with a light in it... long story short a friend of mine had to put in a light himself. One day I was coming back from work and was crossing a fairly busy street. I move my cane down onto the street level (as opposed to the sidewalk), think that it's a little wobbly but okay, and proceed the cross the street. Midway across, the cane breaks in half. So I run to the other side of the street and make it to my bus.
The other funny: I was going to a Christian bookstore near my apartment, and I'd only been there once before, so I got a bit lost in the parking ot. I heard voices coming from the strip mall, so I was able to find my way to the sidewalk. I walk into the nearest business, ask them if they could tell me where I am.
"Sure," the guy says, "You'r in the Adult Superstore."
Yes, I, the nice Christian girl, went into an adult bookstore... the girls at Blessings wouldn't let me forget it!
Crazy Kate