fdmaxey's notebook entry: Apr 27, 2010

"Waiting for the other shoe to drop." This means to expect something bad will happen, but not knowing when. You just want to get it over with.
This originated in a joke about 60 years ago.
A man is in a hotel room and starts to undress to go to bed. He drops a shoe on the floor and it makes a lot of noise. He doesn't want to disturb the person in the room below him so he puts the second shoe down very gently, so it doesn't make a sound.
15 minutes later, he hears a knock on the door. It is the man in the room below looking tired and worn. The man at the door says "My God! WHEN are you going to drop the other shoe!?"

trying to translate it

等待另一只鞋子掉下来，这意思是期待不好的事发生，但是不知道会是神马时候，你只想忘了它，

这来源于大约60年前的一个笑话，

一个人在一个饭店房间里，准备脱衣睡觉，他脱了一只鞋子放在地板上，发出了很多噪音，他不想打扰住在他楼下的人，所以他轻轻地脱掉第二只鞋子，这样就不会发出响声，

15分钟以后，他听见有人在敲门，是住在他楼下的那个人，他看上去精疲力尽。门口的那个人说：”天呐，你打算什么时候脱掉第二只 鞋子？“