I am one of those people who can agonize endlessly over dumb things I did months or years or even decades ago. I wish I were exaggerating. Social gaffes, awkward interactions, people I inadvertently hurt, situations I walked into that I should have been prepared for but decidedly was not. I can practically writhe with embarrassment and even shame over things that happened long ago and that really don't matter. It isn't unusual for me to wake up in the middle of the night having what I guess is probably a mild panic attack about something a normal person would have immediately forgotten.
But I have yet to come up with a way to stop doing it. Advice welcome. I do know that if you are an anxious person, it makes you an easily manipulated person. Either consciously or unconsciously, someone else can sense my lack of confidence and use it to gently or overtly push me into doing what they want. More about this another time, because that is not even close to what I sat down to type about.
So you probably think I'm about to tell you about some horribly embarrassing incident, but no, this one wouldn't even make my top twenty list. My mom and I went on an Alaska cruise about ten years ago. Any time I travel, I have one of those 7-day pill containers that I use to organize my meds-- not by day, but by type. So the Sunday box will have my migraine meds, Monday will have cold meds, Tuesday will have B-2, or whatever. In other words, it is full.
The cruise departed from Seattle, so I met my mom there. She has a lot of trouble with her knees and ankles, so when she realized she was missing (some item, I can't remember what it was), I volunteered to run down the street to a Walgreen's while she waited at the check-in area. My 7-day pill container, all loaded up for the week, was in my purse.
The Walgreen's was super busy, so I stood in line for awhile and then pulled out my wallet so I would be ready to pay, caught the edge of the pill container and the whole thing dashed to the floor. There were pills everywhere.
By some miracle, the lid of the prescription migraine meds section did not open, so all the ones on the floor were replaceable, but still-- I couldn't leave them there. So there I was, down on my knees in front of twenty people, scooping up more than a hundred pills. I finally got them, paid for my mom's stuff, and then dumped all those pills in the trash on my way out. The only thing that saved me from expiring of embarrassment on the spot was that (as far as I know) no one I know witnessed it. (for god's sake, if you were there, do not tell me).
So you can imagine how impressed I was when my sister told me her latest favorite travel hack. She had one of those pill containers come open in her suitcase, resulting in unnamed pills everywhere-- it hadn't even occurred to her that this could also happen PUBLICLY IN FRONT OF A MILLION PEOPLE (like the title says, melodrama!). So she took one of those eyeglass sleeves that you get every time you buy a pair of readers and put the pill container in the glasses case. It is brilliant. 
My sister is my hero (not for the first time)(both sisters rescue me regularly).
p.s. there was actually a small moment of warmth during The Incident At The Walgreens. A young boy, probably about six or seven, was standing behind me in line, and he immediately bent down to help me pick up the pills. His mom stopped him, of course— I wouldn't have let my kids pick up unidentified meds either— but still it was a spontaneous moment of thoughtfulness that I remember almost as often as I do my embarrassment. Sweet kid.
So there you go. I'll even attach a photo. I'm emailing this (the 21st century equivalent of phoning it in?)(smirk) so we'll see how the photo turns out.
Have a great weekend. We are heading south to attend my mom's 90th birthday party! Go, mom!
