The Time I Lit My Head on Fire

A few years ago, my family was having a little barbecue in the backyard (when we were still kinda social). I remember that my parents had just been given a grill by someone my dad did some work for or some such nonsense. Anyways, this was the first time that we had a chance to use it, and being the helpful little shrew I am, I was helping my mom try to figure out the grill. It was one of those propane grills where you had the light the propane to get it going. My mom left to get something out of the house while I was left to play with propane and fire without supervision. I was probably around 14 or 15 at the time, and didn't have a vast knowledge of circumstances that could cause explosions and third degree burns. This, as well as the lack of supervision, was perfect for a terrible situation. I turned the propane up to full blast, because my hormone filled adolescent brain thought that was a good idea. I honestly had no idea what I was doing. I then started lighting matches and sticking them in the small ventilation holes on the side of the grill where you're supposed to light the burners. That was probably the only thing I did right. After approximately 300 matches it still wouldn't light, so I went inside the house and got one of those long lighter thingys. Because that makes sense. I went back to the grill with my new magic fire stick and stuck it in the grill. I lit the lighter. My entire head was suddenly engulfed in flames. I remember being too surprised to feel any distress. Once I realized that my head was on fire, I ran into the house to extinguish my face. 

By the time I got to the bathroom, only my eyebrows were on fire, and my hair had curled and was smoking. I put out my eyebrows, only to see that my eyebrows had also curled from being on fire, making me look like Gandalf or some other crazy eyebrowed character. This was incredibly unfortunate since my family (including me) laughs at other people's pain and unfortunate accidents (such as lighting your face on fire). 

As I walked out of the bathroom with my head hanging in shame, I ran into the last person I wanted to see with my flame face. It was my sister Kristen. I have never seen so much glee in her face than I did at that moment. As I told her what happened, she started laughing so hard that she turned a color that I had never seen before. My mom and dad had seen my head go up in flames, and when I went back outside my mom asked me in a mocking tone if I was okay. I could tell by the tears in the corner of her eyes that she had been laughing at me being blasted in the face with flames. My shameful head hanging became much more severe at this point. It didn't help that every time Kristen looked at me she had a violent giggling fit. 

Over the next few days, I tried to stay in my room where no one could see my Gandalf eyebrows/shame. Luckily they grew back pretty fast, and I was able to escape my flame face induced shame spiral. I learned my lesson. No more grill lighting for me.