And the winner is....me

Some people say I'm a competitive person. It's true...some people don't even realize that I'm competing with them. Like when I used to commute by metro, I would drive to within walking distance of the station and hoof it to catch the train. On my evening return to the car, I would walk as fast as I could past all the other walkers, silently exultant about having "won". But one guy who must have gotten off of the same train I did for several days, seemed impossible to beat without breaking into a full run. At about 6'3'', his legs were a lot longer, and even when it seemed I was about to get out in front of him, he would speed up too. He became the one to beat, unbeknownst to him, because I never gave any indication that I was silently racing. Or so I thought. One day I had beaten all the others and was chasing him down at a full-out pace, and as I'm getting to within passing range, he turns his head to the side and says "You're gaining on me!" I was pretty embarrassed at being called out and had to give up the race. Didn't see him again after that.

It's not so much that I love winning as much as I hate losing. Not so much in team sports, but on the individual level. Winning anything is fun, even random things. Yesterday there was an unexpected contest at the grocery store. As I was studying the bread selections, a voice came over the loudspeaker saying that shoppers should look for a painted number on the floor and go stand on it, and if the number you're standing on is called, you'd be the Grand Prize Winner. I quickly scanned down the aisle and spotted a circled 5 in front of the bottled water section. The loudspeaker counted down "10..9..8.." but I was standing on my 5 already. When they called the number, a woman a few aisles over who had stood on #7 was the winner. Not sure that the grand prize was going to be all that, but sure would have liked to win anyway. Hope they keep that contest going...cause I'll keep trying.

Mesmerizing

A friend sent me this yesterday. If "interpretive juggling" became an Olympic sport, this guy would be the gold medal contender.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4776181634656145640

Hold it right there missy

I'm usually a confrontation-avoider, but today I rose to the occasion. I did laundry this morning. I have a great cart for ... carting all the clothes down to our building's basement. I bought it years back for my grandmother to use to carry her groceries home from the store. After she passed I inherited it. It holds alot and has been extremely handy. I even get comments on it on the elevator, people wanting to know where I bought it, etc.

As I do every laundry day, after starting the washers I left the cart in the laundry room, stowed next to our machines. When I returned a half hour later to switch from washer to dryer, I spied a young girl, maybe 13, at one of the dryers, standing over the cart about to drop a newly-dried handful of clothes into it...she was looking up and questioning her mother whether she should use it. The mom signaled the go-ahead and the clothes went into the cart. I went into action.

"That's my cart."

She apologized and left the cart, confrontation over. At least it didn't come to fisticuffs.

My favorite words

Not favorite in that I use them often--if only they were easier to use in everyday chitchat...

• willy-nilly
• ne'er-do-well
• fisticuffs

Got any?

Unfinished projects

From time to time I'll get motivated to undertake what at the time seems like a fun craft, like making something cool to wear, or a house decoration...here's how it goes 95 percent of the time: I get started with buying all the necessaries, excitedly tell friends what I'm planning to produce, and then delve into production, until...something (anything) else distracts me...permanently. That's why in my closet there's a bag of 4-5 knitted squares of a 30-square wool blanket, a set of 2 of the umpteen required crocheted strips of yarn for a lovely poncho, and why a collage I started of my husband's and my family's baby pictures hangs in the nursery with a big empty space in the middle, where our son's picture is supposed to be. Is it a concentration problem? Or do I pick the wrong projects? Maybe both...maybe these craft-sy undertakings just need to be small enough to satisfy my need for instant gratification.

So here's hoping that my new blog fares a little better...at least I can claim I finished one post! (very gratifying!)