Its late and I'm trying to fall asleep. My brain, which has been perfectly functional all day, decides that right now is the time to revisit every mildly embarrassing thing I have ever done.
(First it brings up something from last week where I waved back at someone who wasn't waving at me. Standard. Fine. We move on.)
(Then it goes back to 2019 where I called a teacher "mom" in front of the whole class. I am a grown adult. I was in a community cooking class. The teacher was a 60 year old woman I had met 45 minutes prior.)
(Then it locates and replays in full HD a moment from 2014 where I confidently told someone a fact that was completely wrong and they looked it up right in front of me and I had to stand there while they read the correct information out loud.)
(I physically pull the blanket over my face.)
(My brain: theres more.)
(I lay there for another 45 minutes receiving a highlight reel of moments I thought I had buried. A mispronounced word in a work presentation. A time I laughed at something that turned out to not be a joke. The day I spelled a simple word wrong in a text and autocorrect didn't catch it and I didn't notice until an hour later.)
I fell asleep at 1:30am. My alarm went off at 6:30. I am running on five hours and the haunting memory of calling a stranger mom.