Wednesday, September 3, 2008

A Random Bit of Stupidity

This morning as I'm leaving my house at about 9, I stop and dig into my bedside pharmacopia to pull out some of my prescription allergy meds (somethin's blooming around here!). Apparently, I actually took TWO of those sleeping pills that start with a big "A". Yes. I took 2 of them.

I realized this as I was driving to school and I stopped to get my usual Rte. 44 diet coke - "why am I feeling so wonky suddenly", I thought. That's the answer. I believe that I was weaving a bit in the hallway of my office. And I still had to teach my 10am class! So, I simply came clean - I told them, "I wasn't wearing my glasses this morning and this is what happened, folks!" I think I was probably okay during class, but I was seeing double at first. I don't remember much about the class, actually, except we didn't get through everything I wanted to - I remember students raising hands and talking, etc. and then after class, I ran into one of them at the elevator in my office building. She asked how I was doing with having taken two and I asked if the class was okay or if I'd begun talking in tongues. She laughed and said I'd been fine, but that I just seemed very chill.

Oh god, I hope I didn't do/say anything stupid.

I still had to meet someone for lunch who I'd never met before. I'd left my wallet in my car b/c I was so out of it that morning, so he graciously spotted me and said, "Amb.ien can do that!" And then I taught a fairly normal afternoon class. I remember being okay for that. Then a late afternoon grant writing workshop and finally home and a 4 hour nap.

So, now that all that's out of my system, the shame sets in. How should I play this? Should I play this at all? People just noticed that I was "out of it" all day - when I told my friends and colleagues who asked they laughed and said they understood now. But I hope I didn't do something truly awful - do you know how sometimes with sleeping pills how you can have blank spots in your memory? Try taking two and then teaching.

My plan is to act like nothing ever happened. I'm going to have so many more meetings with that partocular class that I'm sure I can make them forget my total goofiness today. I hope.

Ugh. The embarrassment!

5 comments:

Hilaire said...

OMG you poor thing! Though I must say there's something amusing in that. But I think you are right to play it as if nothing happened. It probably *isn't* as bad as you're imagining, and saying anything about it will just draw attention to what might have been a minor issue!

Thoroughly Educated said...

Eek! I agree with Hilaire that there's no need to bring it up, but if it does come up, saying you mistakenly took the nighttime version of your allergy medicine would be an appropriate near-the-truth explanation. It IS allergy season, big time.

medieval woman said...

Well, T - it's too late, I already came clean about which ridiculous pills I'd taken. But I think they thought it was funny - I saw one of my students from my afternoon class today and she asked me jokingly if I'd slept well. But everyone was nice about it...

Notorious Ph.D. said...

Okay. This is pretty funny. Poor you, and all. But it did have me laughing. With you, not at you, just to be clear.

gwoertendyke said...

hi-larious. it almost sounds fun.