Another week, another social gaffe!

I am notorious for social gaffes.  They're never intended and they're never meant to be malicious, but they happen and I'm sure on many occasions, I have offended people.  If you know me, you just sit back and laugh at me or shake your head (Oh! That crazy Karen has done it again!).  Generally, I have at least a social gaffe a week.  Some times I have multiple gaffes in a day or week.  Occasionally, I can make it out of a week without one at all.

Yesterday we had a great day with our neighbors.  We went to a birthday party down the street and hung out with the neighbors there for a little bit.  Then we headed over to another neighbor's house for a fun afternoon of eating good food and hilarious stories.  After our afternoon/evening with the neighbors we went home for a short while to feed the dog and let him out to stretch his legs, and then it was off to watch the local fireworks with the neighbors from outback and the neighbors from around the corner and across the street (same ones we visited in the afternoon).

While waiting in the parking lot for the fireworks to begin, that's when the social gaffe happened.  My neighbor, Joanne, complimented Madeline's dress.  Instead of just thanking her for the compliment, I had to say "We have the same dress for Ellie, too, but Bryan didn't want her to wear it to the birthday party today because he didn't want us to be THAT family with the hokey matching outfits."  At that moment, the neighbors from outback were getting out of their car and guess what?  Yep, their kids were wearing matching shirts. Crud.  I know Sara heard me and I felt bad.  I had no idea the kids were dressed alike.  So I commented to Joanne that I just had my social gaffe for the week and pointed out the matching outfits.  She proceeds to tell me that she thinks Bryan was just being ridiculous and that the girls should have worn the other dresses.  Ten minutes later I noticed that her girls were dressed identically, too.  Double gaffe!  I had to laugh at myself.  Obviously  I am not particularly observant (in my defense when I saw the girls in the afternoon they were in swimsuits, and Sara's kids were, too, when we saw them at the birthday party).

I now have two more sets of neighbors who are aware that I frequently have spontaneous social gaffes.  Keep you ears open, you never know when you'll catch the next gaffe.  Bryan tells me it could be worse.  I could be Joe Biden and have gaffes that are much more frequent.