So how do I market this skill???
Posted by Niki on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
I’ll admit it right here. I’ve never had any measurable bit of athletic skill whatsoever. I’ve been known to trip over my feet. I tried tennis, basketball, dance, gymnastics, cheerleading, and was no good at any of them. I was a reasonably decent roller skater (who wasn’t in the 80′s?), but I could never turn around to backwards the right way to be able to turn at the corner of couples’ skate.
With that said, I actually won a competition today during our Faculty Back-to-School Carnival. Faculty/staff only, no kids, with competitions like cornhole (I didn’t know what it was either – it’s apparently beanbag toss), knock-out, scooter races around the gym, racing rubber ducks down the waterfall (not enough water, they all got stuck multiple times), and more. This was a clever way to bring together nearly everyone in the school to actually do something fun, and it worked very well.
I had signed up for the rubber duck race only, figuring I’d save the more sports-like events for the, well, sportier. We had seen “chilling marbles” on the signup sheet, but no one seemed to know what it was. Once I saw it, I knew that I had found my sport. Back story – I have monkey toes. I pick up dropped things (see clumsy above) with my toes – why bend down? Mark has always called it lazy, but the girls do it too. So we went outside (in the rain) and saw a large washtub, filled with about 8″ of water and a few hundred marbles, surrounded by chairs. The object, of course, was to pick up as many marbles as you could with your toes in a minute. The first group of 8 played, and when time was up they had picked up anywhere from 9 to 27 marbles. Sarah and I knew we had to get in on this, so we pulled off our shoes and socks, rolled up our jeans, and had a seat. When we finished, I had a big pile, and while people hollered out “21″ and “25″, I was still counting (and proceeded to count the rest out loud) – until I reached 38. Yes, folks, I am the reigning Queen of Chilling Marbles. Even with my gimpy toes – I rule.
It took me only 38 years to find my sport – anyone up for a challenge?
Filed in That's life | 3 responses so far
Your toes rock — probably because they spend all that time in wool socks.
But, I’d like to introduce to the one person who can’t roller skate. Nope, I have NO skills for roller skating — no NONE.
But I could totally pick stuff up with my toes. Who could only get nine? NINE? Could their toes even bend?
I’m glad I passed on my one and only athletic ability to you! Sorry I wasn’t here to give sock color advice–my idea would have been to use the darker yarns with the winter sweater, lighter colors with summer. I did find some Alaskan yarn for you and did go see some muskox. Found they have not been successful at domesticating them or raising them in other than Arctic climates, so I guess you can’t have one to go with your llamas. Mom
I love it. When I was a kid, my parents told me no, I couldn’t have a pony. You’re a grownup now, and your mom’s telling you, no, you can’t have a muskox. Too funny!