The Robe Life

Hi everybody, I am so excited to welcome you to our fourth The Robelife Radio Show.

I am your host, The Robe Guy, and we are coming to you from 102.9 FMWBCA Boston's Community

Neighborhood Radio Station.

I want to thank you very much for joining us if you've listened to the show before.

I really appreciate you tuning in again, and if you're new to the show, welcome.

I'm going to spend just a quick moment giving you a little bit more background about the

show as it's still very early on in our Robelife journey.

If you will, here on the airwaves, I feel very fortunate and excited I get to bring my

voice to Boston Radio.

So, what to expect with The Robelife all about anyway?

Well, hopefully some of you might be thinking about bath robes, and well, that's a big part

of it.

It's one small part of it, and I do love to wear them.

If you're familiar with me and the show and the concept, but really, The Robelife is

a little bit of fun.

It's meant to bring to life humor and nostalgia a little less script, a little bit less domestication.

The world today is a complex place.

There's a lot of structure in our lives, personally, professionally, otherwise, as there should

be, tension, things that come with that at the same time.

I personally feel and hopefully some of you agree that it's just great to kick back,

relax when you can, that's important too, and have a little less structure, a little

less script.

Maybe you have a laugh at someone else's expense, like yours truly, and I'm happy to help

with that, and hopefully you'll enjoy the show.

If you're a game, if you really want to embrace the vibe, if you're home, if there's a

robe around that you might put on from time to time, let's throw that thing on.

Let's lean into The Robelife, and let's have some fun with it.

Before we get to tonight's show, and a little bit more about what we're going to cover,

I did just want to mention, I'm very grateful again to be here on 102.9 FMWBCA Boston's

Community Neighborhood Radio Station.

You can listen to this show Friday's, if you tune in at 7.30pm, it'll play there on

the radio station, however, what's really cool is after the show airs, you can find the

episode on Podbean, sort of downloadable as a podcast in that format through the WBCA

website.

So I wanted to make sure, if you're interested in checking that out, if you missed the

show live, that is an option for you.

And so, why don't we dive into what we're going to cover today, and it's, well, I thought

we fun, is to bring to life for you some of my more embarrassing moments that I've had

over the years.

We're going to cover off on those that happened during my childhood, or at least those that

I can remember, just, you know, wasn't too long ago at this point.

And after that, when we take a break, we'll come back, and then we'll talk a little bit

more about some that I've experienced in my adult life.

And I hope these will be fun, and you'll enjoy them.

But I also think it's, well, I was intentional in picking this topic because I've always

strived to be really humble.

And we all have moments, you know, in our lives where there's some embarrassment, it can

be awkward, it can be uncomfortable.

I don't want to say those are ever easy, I don't want to generalize.

Some of the ones I'll talk through that I experienced were, they were bumpy.

And I think sometimes, you know, just, you can learn something from them, you know, embracing

them, the awkwardness sometimes, you know, you might come away a different person, and

I'm not going to say that's the case with all types of informs of embarrassment.

I don't think it's ever fair really to intentionally embarrass someone, and I would certainly

not condone that.

But if I think about some of the moments I've had over the years, hopefully as I share

these with you, maybe you'll bring to mind a couple of things that you went through.

This isn't meant to have all sorts of bad memories percolating up, if you will.

But more, hopefully just to realize that, hey, things happen.

We all have those embarrassing moments.

And in the road life, I, I don't mind them, you know, I'm not saying I seek them out,

but why don't we talk through, and then maybe you'll, you'll think of a few of your own

that you've experienced over the years and maybe look at them in a different light.

So we'll call this first section of the show embarrassing moments part one from my childhood.

So this first one, and I'm not sure if anyone is listening that we'll remember this, but

that's fine.

That's not the point.

This was, I'm going to say middle school, plus or minus a couple of years.

And I remember being in a, I hate to say a heated discussion, but it was some kind of

a discussion I was having with a couple of friends at the time, we're sitting at a table

in the classroom.

And I don't know if the kids were just pushing my buttons or they were trying to, that's

the latter is probably what was happening.

But you're probably all familiar with the expression, get out of my face, you know, sometimes

like someone's just, you know, being aggressive or they're getting say too close to you and

you're uncomfortable.

And I'm not saying get out of my face is the best way to manage that situation, but that's

what I did.

However, I added a very nuanced adjective to my expression, well, I birded, excuse

me, birded, blurred it out, get out of my ugly face.

Yeah.

I don't know why I decided to add that adjective, couldn't have gone any worse.

That led to even more laughter and reactions from the people around me.

I think they knew at that point that I'd reached my limit because I sort of let them have

it, if you will.

But saying get out of my ugly face, I don't know where that came from.

Words matter.

We know that.

This was a moment where I inserted a word that I hadn't really been thinking of and it

couldn't have gone any worse.

So I guess the learning here is, well, whenever you're in a confrontation, not that those

are comfortable, you know, if you're going to say something, maybe just, oh, I think that's

a bit of an old cliche, but if you're going to say something, pause, think about it.

If you have that luxury, and yeah, there was one friend in my name, Mark, who probably

would remember this.

I don't know if he's listening, but this was one that I, well, I heard about for a while

after.

Yeah, get out of my ugly face.

This next one, which was awkward, is I remember we were in our first gym class and we were

basically just getting background on what we were going to be doing in gym that year.

You know, what types of games we were going to be playing and all that kind of good stuff.

I'm not sure if that still happens these days in the school, but the highlight was the

very end of this first class, where I think all of us kids were like, well, are we going

to do anything?

Or are we going to, I don't know, play catch or play kickball or something?

And so the instructor let us know that we'd get a few minutes to play Tetherball.

Yeah, Tetherball, that's not a, that's not a game.

I don't even know if I've played it ever since, and I'll explain why.

So the rope guy decided that in all the excitement that had been built up, he was just going

to take off sprinting, even being told by the instructor to not necessarily do that,

on slow or walk to the Tetherball area, well, I fell down the way there and I put my arm

down to kind of break my fall, slid, somehow got a small rock in my arm and started crying

for my mom in front of all of my classmates.

Yeah, that is, you can imagine what really well, I had to go to the nurses office, I'll

spare you the details of the injury for a young boy of probably 10 to 12.

This was pretty traumatic, thankfully I was okay, but again, you know, should have walked

a little slower, should have paused and maybe listened to the authority figure around me.

But you know what?

Sometimes you have a lot of excitement, and especially as a kid, you get to play Tetherball

for a couple minutes at the end of a gym class.

I mean, I was like, let's go, let's do it.

Thankfully though, what I didn't have on at the time, but that I would have on at a similar

age was a very infamous new kids on the block t-shirt.

I love the new kids, I imagine a lot of people do of course, but back then, it was probably

a little bit different for, say, a boy to wear new kids on the block t-shirt to school.

It was just a different time, a different environment, and yet I just, I love the new kids, and

I was really proud of that.

Oh, well, it was embarrassing when I wore that to school.

I guess maybe embarrassing is the right term because, well, I got a lot of feedback on

that, and I won't repeat it here, but it was a little tough, you know, from some kids

that just felt like I was an easy target.

But you know what?

I was fortunate enough to actually tell this story to one Donnie Walper, when I ran into

him at the Celtics game, and he probably doesn't remember this, but he was very empathetic

and understanding.

Thank you Donnie.

I just wish he'd been around back then when I was a kid, and I was in that t-shirt at

school.

Oh, boy.

And actually, quick side note, which I thought was kind of funny as I thought about getting

ready to record this show, it was just yesterday at the gym that someone about my age, which

we'll call 45 plus or minus 10, came into the gym wearing a 1987 Whitney Houston t-shirt.

Oh, boy, this was awesome.

And I think a few of us noticed, I wanted to give him a high five or something, shout out

for wearing something like that to the gym, this was incredible.

But the fun part was the coach for the class, what we have music in the background just

decided to throw on one of her greatest hits, which I know I can't even remember which

one it was, but that got everybody kind of raising their eyebrows, and then they all

looked over at this guy, and they were like, oh, got it.

So embarrassment can come, well, anytime you're going to be ready for it.

Number one, at the same vein, me trying to be mischievous, I was a pretty conservative

guy at a young age, you know, I didn't really take many risks, I didn't really, my aspire

never to get in trouble, I was very academic-oriented, I had a lot of fun reading, et cetera.

So it was a bit of a surprise when a pure of mine, I'll leave it at that, another kid,

convinced me to join him in toilet papering the boys' bathroom, I think this was in middle

school.

And of course, we were caught, I'm not sure why I thought there was a chance we wouldn't

be, and you know, it was pretty humiliating.

In the time I thought, wow, I'm edgy, I'm going to be hanging out with other kids now

that I had otherwise not had a chance to, and yet this was just where, you know, there

was some discipline or any action, I think I had a detention or something.

That might have been my only detention, which I'm proud to say, but it was, ooh, I felt

like just so edgy, though, like, you know, when I was putting that toilet paper wherever

I was, I can't really remember the details, but, you know, just, I think one of us was

standing guard, keeping an eye out, why will we toilet papering the bathroom?

There was no real objective, there was no real point, you know, as you can probably

all imagine, outside of just, well, maybe trying to be different and do something that

we wouldn't get caught doing, well, that's not what happened.

And in any event, I did learn something from that toilet paper should only have one

use when you're in the bathroom, generally speaking.

And so I would encourage you all to keep that in mind, you know, make sure that's something

you tell your children, if you do have children, if you haven't already, as they're growing

up and they're entering middle school, but it also encouraged them to wear t-shirts,

you know, with the bands that they love, and make sure that you remind them that words

matter, especially in confrontations.

Let's see, I think the only other thing I'd like to cover here before we go to a short

break is that, with all this said, it's probably not surprising to you that the rogue guy

was voted most uptight in his senior class of high school, partly as a consequence, you

know, of all these experiences I've had.

And, you know, socially, I think I, you know, it wasn't easy for me, like especially when

I was, you know, being laughed at or made fun of, for some of the things I've shared

with you all, but it kind of, as I grew up, you know, made me realize, you can, you

can toughen up a little bit, you can have a tougher skin, you can let things roll off

you.

And now in a strange way, I'm probably the opposite, you know, I don't really get uptight

about anything.

Here I am on the radio, talking about, you know, the real life and sharing all these

moments with you, confidently, comfortably, and I just think it's fun, it's been a change

for me, but I think we all kind of experienced that to a certain extent growing up.

It's okay to have those things happen to you, but try not to, you know, worry about them

too much.

You know, you get a long way to go, and you're going to be just fine.

And I mean, here I am, 47 years old, living proof, wearing a bathrobe outside, you know,

things are really going well for me.

Let's face it.

So, what the all that said, I hope you've enjoyed listening to some of my, what you can't

just want to make sure I'm clear here, a subset, a small proportion of some of my embarrassing

moments that I've experienced as a child.

And again, the intention here was to hopefully make you realize that these things are okay.

It's okay to be humble, it's okay to have things happen.

And I've certainly learned a lot from what I've gone through over the years.

And on the other side, we're going to talk a little bit more about some of the experiences

I've had as an adult, which are also just, I think, hilarious.

So, we're going to head to a break if you're just tuning in, you're listening to the

Robelife Radio Show here on 102.9 at WBCA, Boston's Community Neighborhood Radio Station.

This is our fourth show tonight, and I've just been regaling you all, if I could put

it that way, with some of the Robelife's famous or infamous embarrassing moments and what

he's learned from them.

And on the other side, when we come back, we're going to dive into, I guess you could see

a part two of this.

We'll cover off on some of those moments that I've experienced in the adult world.

So hope to see you on the other side.

Again, this is the Robelife Radio Show on 102.9 at WBCA.

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Welcome back everyone to the road life radio show.

I am your host, the road guy, and we are coming to you from 102.9 WBCA Boston's Community

Neighborhood Radio Station.

Thank you very much for listening.

If you're just tuning in in this show, before the break, we were discussing some of my

real guys, I should say, but they're mine.

Most famous are infamous embarrassing moments because we all need a little embarrassment.

Now and then, I think it's important for all of us to kind of lean into that and, well,

we've all experienced a little of that and I think we can often learn something from

it and ultimately probably makes us say a more well-rounded individual.

I'll keep telling myself that anyway.

So as I mentioned before, the break, if you were listening in now, we're going to cover

off on a few experiences I've had is an adult in the world of, well, many different

worlds, professionally, personally, and kind of what I took away from them.

And again, the theme here is maybe these will get you thinking about some of those moments

you've had.

What you learned maybe have a chuckle at your own expense.

If you just have a chuckle at my expense, that is fine.

That means I'm doing my job, so let's go.

Oh, wow, this one, and again, with some of these, I'm going to keep them at a certain

altitude, so it was not to kind of give away certain information, not that I'm withholding

anything.

But, so I had the distinct pleasure in my prior world, I'll call it in biotech where

I was able to join a Board of Directors meeting, which was a big deal and talk a little

bit about one of the programs that we were working on that was meant to bring patients

in New Medicine.

And I'll never forget that, you know, I spent some time preparing for this presentation.

I was pretty early on in my career, and I never thought I'd have a chance to be amongst

a group of leaders like that and to talk a little bit about something we were working

on.

And why was this embarrassing?

Well, overall, I think I did fine with the presentation, but the highlight was this

particular medicine we were working on was going to be in an area that was very competitive.

There was a lot of active research, a lot of people were hoping to bring something new

to patients because a lot of that needs, et cetera.

And we knew that, and we had a lot of information about these competitors that were going to

allow us to better shape our thinking, our strategy, and how we might want to bring our

own medicine to patients that other companies would be competing for.

And so you can imagine when, you know, for some here thinking, okay, I want to be ready

for questions.

I want to have something articulate and, you know, to show the folks the board that I,

you know, they can have confidence in the work we've done.

So when one of the board members asked me during my presentation about what we thought about

the competition, my response was it's going to be competitive, and I just stopped.

So now for some of you, that might sound like a perfectly adequate response.

Well based on some feedback, I received after the presentation, and then someone else

looking out for me in the presentation that added a little more color, which of course

we had a lot of information on the competition and how we were thinking about it.

Classic deer in the headlights moment.

In my defense, I was always taught to be brief, be bright, be gone.

So maybe I just thought, well, it's going to be competitive.

You know, it's a pretty punching one line right there, and I mean, everybody should

sit up a little bit straighter in their seats if they hear that from me, right?

Yeah, I don't know.

It's basically like, okay, who is this person?

Yeah, you better go back to the drawing board, buddy.

You're going to have a little bit more to say.

So I learned a big lesson there, which was, you know, sure, words matter.

You want to be, you know, the same to especially in an audience or setting like that.

And you want to be able to be ready to articulate a little bit more.

And that's going to go a long way with helping others build the confidence they have

in you and to make sure that, you know, there isn't anything that's being missed.

So I thought that was a pretty good one.

I mentioned before the break, again, if you're just joining us, sort of a fun moment,

we had a CrossFit yesterday as somebody walked in with an 1987 Whitney Houston t-shirt.

I didn't think there were any more of those out there, but in any event, the other embarrassing

moment that comes to mind though is, I'll just call them CrossFit warm up fails.

So I've talked a little bit about, oh, I think I have now, my hearing loss, how I

wear hearing aids.

And that just created so many fun moments at the gym.

And for those of you that aren't aware, I mean hearing aids, they're wonderful technology.

But most of them, you know, you can't wear it when you're working out, well, certainly

not when you're in the shower or you're swimming or something like that because the moisture

will just, well, it's not good.

It'll ultimately ruin what you're looking to utilize.

So I don't wear my hearing aids when I'm in the gym and I do pretty good, the coaches

know of my hearing loss.

So they make a point, I really appreciate this, of kind of coming by when they're rattling

off, say different things that we're going to do, but it's never easy for them.

It's never easy for me.

So where do the fails come on, you know, I'll give you an example, like Coach will say,

all right, everyone, give me 10 of these air squats or burpees or something.

And I can't even tell you how many times I've heard something else.

And so the class is all the others around me banging out exercise A while I'm doing exercise

B and it's the expression on the ground like even though some know that I can't hear that

well.

But it's like his robe guy doing his own workout, you know, he's he's hearing this class

or shouldn't he be aligned with what the instructor is asking him to do.

We know he's older, we know his back's been given him problems.

Maybe this is just his way of dealing it or with it, I should say.

But that's happened a lot and I, well, I do what I can.

I try to keep my my head up so I can see what others are doing and I think that's the

lesson.

It's, you know, if you have something that you're dealing with, don't be afraid to

say approach somebody like I have done with the coach and let them know that I'm, you

know, sometimes struggling to hear, but also, you know, be kind to yourself.

None of us are going to be able to hear everything and I've even gotten that really supportive

message from others when we're out and say a busier setting, like a restaurant, there's

a different level of volume there.

I appreciate it when people are like, you know what, we can't really hear that well either.

And I'm like, yeah, I think you're just saying that because you seem to be hearing pretty

well, which leads me to my next one, sort of other hearing aid fails is just the classic

robe guy thinking he heard one thing.

And then that was very different from what was being said and maybe we've all had moments

like this.

But one that comes to mind was, and I am guilty of this, like when I'm in a setting

that's really loud or busy, I'll sometimes just do my best, especially if I've met someone

new, but you know, there'll be some nodding, some smiling, some different words of acknowledgement.

Oh, yeah, okay.

Mm-hmm.

Really?

Oh, interesting.

Like some of those neutral statements, one that's hearing impaired, can utilize, let's

just say to kind of keep a conversation moving where maybe they're not all that interested

in it.

So you can imagine my dismay and the embarrassment I felt when one time I was talking to a buddy

who was actually sharing something that was kind of difficult for them had to do with

their family.

And in this moment, I picked, oh, it's great, you know, I'm so glad to hear that.

Oh, man, that didn't go over well.

And then of course, as you can imagine, you know, this person knew about my hearing

loss.

Well, if you didn't understand what I was saying, and how come you didn't just say that.

And you know, again, I learned that's a good feedback from me.

I mean, I have to deal with what I have to deal with, but yet I, I, I needed to remember

that it's, this is what I've got.

And if I want to make sure I'm being attentive and empathetic and understanding, et cetera.

Well, maybe I'm overthinking this.

It was embarrassing, but I did learn in that moment that I needed to be mindful of letting

others know that I can't hear and what that means and ultimately how I can hopefully

have better interactions with people.

So with a couple minutes left, God, I wish I had more time to talk through a few of these

other ones.

But briefly, there was the time I was infamously deported from Italy.

My passport, passport, that's not how you say it, passport was flagged as lost or stolen

in the Interpol database.

And I think the embarrassing moment there, well, there's a lot of embarrassing moments.

Unfortunately, I don't have time to cover it all, but the one I remember, keenly, that

I thought was quite funny, but the reaction I got was quite different is when the Italian

police officer at the airport informed me about my passport being lost or stolen.

I said, well, it can't be lost or stolen because you're holding it in your hand.

Oh, yeah, that didn't, that didn't go so well.

And then also, I had an opportunity to drive a car that was covered in large meatballs

and tomato sauce.

That was embarrassing.

I'm not sure where the meatballs came from.

I'm just frustrated.

It wasn't garlic bread.

It was early in the morning.

It was a cold morning.

I mean, if they could have just been placed in some kind of a container, I might have been

able to enjoy them later.

And yet, unfortunately, that's known.

So.

Oh, boy.

Well, I hope with everything I've talked about in this show, embarrassing moments the

road guys had in childhood and adulthood, it's got you thinking about some of the things

you may have gone through as a child as an adult last week.

It's okay, you know, from time to time to feel a little embarrassment.

I think you can learn something from that.

It's humbling.

I am Mr. Humble.

I always aspire to be.

And don't forget that, you know, there's probably something else that's going to come

across your plate or happen to you in the future.

It'll be fine.

And sometimes a little embarrassment can go a long way.

It can be fun.

It can be revealing about you, about somebody else.

And it happens to the best of us.

And so it's going to be okay.

That's what I keep telling myself anyway.

So as a reminder, as we close out, I really appreciate you listening.

This show is airing every Friday at 7.30 p.m.

And as I mentioned, the start of the show, if you were tuning in then, if you aren't able

to listen in when it airs, you can find the show on WBCA's website via their pod bean

search for the Robelife and you'll be able to find that information.

And if you're interested in learning more about the Robelife Radio show, if you're

an Instagram, you can send us a direct message or DM to at the Robeguy.

Or you can email us at CelticsRobeguy at gmail.com.

So I want to thank you all for listening.

I look forward to talking with you all in our next show.