Awkward Moment of the Week (well, one of them)

I spent this past week in Indianapolis for a training seminar.  Good times.  Honestly, despite it being a lot of work, it was a lot of fun.  I met some terrific people, learned a lot and even managed to have a couple of fun nights out.  Oh, and did I mention that I made it to the gym FOUR times.  That is my world record, I believe.

In any event, of course, there were awkward moments to be had.  New faces, new friends, awkwardness was inevitable.  And this time, it came in the form of my cell phone.

It was Wednesday afternoon, we were giving seven minutes of our closing argument.  Did I mention that we were also video-taping ourselves?  I cannot remember if I had given my argument at this time of this incident.  I had my phone ringer turned off.  That morning was one of my gym sessions.  Because I couldn't really get anything good on the treadmill TV, I had used my Pandora application on my Blackberry. (P.S. This was my favorite application I had downloaded.) Of course, the radio had been turned off for hours.  I had successfully used my phone after I had turned Pandora off.  One of my colleagues had just given his closing argument, a rather persuasive one at that, at which point one of the faculty proceeded to give an impromptu lecture.  My phone began to ring.  Of course, since it was on silent, no noise came out.  I hit the ignore button, at which point I began to hear a noise.  Music.  And it was coming from my phone.  Kanye West.  Love Lockdown.  And I could not get it to turn off.  It seemed every time I hit the off button, my finger would slip and it would stay on.  The music started to get louder.  Everyone started to stare and offer their suggestions for getting the music to stop.  The faculty member who had been drawing out diagrams at the front of the room asked if it was playing a specific song.  And the music continued to get louder.

Finally, I was able to turn off my phone successfully.  The music stopped.  My face was sufficiently red, and I felt like a jerk.  It was a terrific way to introduce my group as to the awkwardness I introduce to each and every day.

I'm back home to Chicago now having survived a week of intensive training and a mock trial, all embarrassment aside.  Stay tuned for a record of more awkward moments.