the only stupid question

My brother, Drew, asks a lot of questions. Actually, "a lot" doesn't even to cover the amount he asks. Growing up I always remember him asking the questions when we were in the car. Not that I remember him asking it, but the type of question would be like: "why is the sky blue?" Usually not impossible questions, but frequently ones that no one in the car knew the answer to. My mom would try to come up with answers, but at some point she just ran out of answers and started saying, "I wonder."

I find it convenient to blame my personality traits on my siblings, so I like to think that the reason I don't ask many of questions is because of Drew. I tend instead to take things at face value. What I see IS what I get. Unless forced into small talk, I don't ask much. I usually just sit back, watch, and listen and eventually figure things out. Most of the time my questions get answered eventually without me asking.

To be totally honest, the other reason I don't ask a lot of questions is that I like people thinking I already know all the answers. Actually, that isn't true, I doubt people think that about me. I simply don't like them knowing I don't know something when I do ask. It's one thing for someone to think I'm not perfect and all knowing... it's another thing to have proof.

Sometimes my curiosity gets the best of me, as it did late in the day on Tuesday at work. Our office is two floors of totally open studios. We don't have cubicles. My boss, Brian, sits directly across from me. He doesn't have any walls either. Generally the office is really quiet (well, upstairs where I sit it is). Brian walks upstairs and tells Erin to turn the music he's listening to through headphones on so all of us can hear it. Apparently it was too quiet (which I would agree with).

So Erin turns the music on, and I recognize it, but I just can't quiet place the name of the band. All I know is that I'm pretty sure I own the album that is playing and I like it. I have a horrible horrible auditory memory. I usually can remember about one line of lyrics from a song. The only song I consistently name when it comes on the radio is Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good" (random song to know). Since it's the end of the day I'm packing up my stuff. Before I leave, I can't stand it anymore, I have to ask.

"Erin, what band is this?"

All the sudden behind me, Brian stops mid-sentence and says, "look over your head" while Erin just keeps saying, "seriously?" while laughing.

Oh man, bad news. I totally insulted my boss's favorite band. Above my desk, directly above my computer is this six foot tall poster of U2. There are only two pieces of decoration on the whole floor and both of them are giant U2 posters. You would think that since I own the particular U2 album that was playing, I would recognize it. Not so much. I stammered half coherently about my bad auditory memory and trying to defend myself by explaining I owned the CD. I don't think it helped my situation at all. Everyone thought it was pretty funny. It was, but I turned pretty red. This is exactly why I don't ask questions.

So, the moral of the story is: maybe there aren't any stupid questions, but there are lots of questions that might just make you look a little stupid. As for me... I'm going to think twice before I ask the next time. I didn't really want to know that bad anyway.