I got mad skillz

OK, this still being the Olympics, I'm still thinking skill sets.  I've heard it said that in an average lifetime, a person is really good at 3 things.  But how do you find those personal 3 things in your life that you are good at?

How did [insert random biathlete] discover he was good at the combination of skiing and shooting?  I imagine for gold it takes more than practice, but some raw talent in a particular sport to set you apart...plus you have to like it too.  That is as random a combination as a quad toe loop into a triple axle (yea, I have no idea either, they jump, spin in the air and I only notice if they fall down).

OK, I need you to think for a moment.  I know, I know, that's not what the Interweb is all about, but just help me out for a second.  I need you to think about what truly random things you're really good at.  What are YOUR "Olympic Sports" in a way (but we're using the word sports here very loosely).

I'm not talking about things you like to do.  I like to roller skate/blade...but I'm not especially good at it.  I like to take walks, but I'm not exceptionally fast or talented.  I like to sing, but I'm never going to be an American Idol.

However, I have found 2 random things I have a talent for...unfortunately, they are not very marketable skills.

First, I can load a dishwasher like nobody's business.  I'm not talking cramming in a weeks worth of dishes and opening it up to discover half the stuff didn't get clean.  Call it spatial aptitude, but I can fill a dishwasher within an inch of its life and still get everything sparkling.  What drives me crazy is my husband does not even remotely possess this skill, he puts bowls, dishes, and glasses in willy-nilly and it drives me crazy and I end up redoing the whole thing anyway.  

My second talent is far less marketable.  I am an expert celebrity voice-over identifier.  Essentially, I can tell you who is speaking on commercials and animated movies.  It's a gift.  A horrible and pointless gift. 

I'm hoping my last skill is one that can earn me a little cash.  But what if my last talent turns out to be best waste management refuse recycler?  Bummer.

Furthermore, what if we never find our "3 life skills?"  Or worse, what if something else impedes on them.  For example, what if I could be a world class heart surgeon but because I can't stand the sight of blood, I'll never know?  

Possibly, though, your skills change over time and you get more than 3.  If that is not the case, my 2 year-old has already mastered dumping everything out around her and making terrible messes...so we'll see.

I guess you just try as many things as you can and hope you not only like what you do, but you also do it well.

Don't worry, my next post will be far more pop culture driven.  This philosophical crap is really hurting my head. 

BTW--Seriously, did ANYONE believe Tiger's public apology?  Dude looked like a fifth-grader giving his first public speaking speech.  My fav?  When he said something like, "Elin should be commended for her grace... (......long pause........look up at camera.....oh crap, where is my space?  Shoot there was more to that sentence) ...and poise.  Or when the main camera blanked out...someone forgot to charge the batteries for a 13 minute speech?  Or how 'bout that awesomely cheap blue backdrop curtain...insert blue ball/golf ball joke here.  Trying to save your marriage and sponsorships in the same dull handwritten speech?  Priceless.

OK, if you could just take a sec and comment on what you think is one of your truly goofy life skills, I'd really appreciate it.  Make me seem less like a freak.

Best day ever!

I'm giddy.  Absolutely in a crazy good mood.  You see, I had been down for the last few weeks but suddenly the universe has decided it's my time and thrown down mass amounts of good fortune at my doorstep today.  It's lovely and I realize how self-absorbed this will sound and how little everyone else will get from this post, but I just had to share how happy today makes me.

Here is my awesome day (and like the cosmos, in random order)

1. The sun is shining today.  I forgot what a pick-me-up you could get from a flaming ball of gas.  There is a husband joke there, but I'm in such a good mood, I'm skipping it.  It's a sun-sun-sun-shiny day!  I'm ODing on Vitamin D.

2.  BNL announced the kickoff of their American tour today.  No Boston, no Denver, no Detroit but a date in IOWA.  I live in Iowa!  Tour date is only an hour away!  Plus, it's on a Sunday night so I can chill out, take a nap, and head to the show.  It won't be crowded, it will be fun.  Opening act is someone I have heard of and like.  It is also the day after I am walking 17 miles (although it sounds awful, it is amazing)  which makes it a mommy weekend.  Better yet, husband is thinking of taking the kids camping that wknd, so it could be my first ever kids-free mommy weekend.  (OK, I get that it sounds terribly cruel to be excited about leaving your kids, but when you've been stuck inside for weeks, is really OK to say out loud.)  I am not ashamed...I am stoked.  So stoked I don't care how uncool it is to say 'stoked.'

3.  Just got an e-mail that Wicked is coming to Madison, over my birthday.  I'm so there.  I love the theatre in Madison, I love Wicked.  I'm so high on life, I'm defying gravity...OK, that was a bad one...loath me!

4.  MOPS was the best one this year so far.  For those of you with lives, MOPS is Mothers of preschoolers.  We meet every two weeks.  This year I love my table.  This week I found the speaker to be awesomely informative, the craft was incredible, and the food was plentiful and delicious.  I missed a few moms who weren't there, but it was still a fabulous time.

5.  I get to make fun of men's figure skaters tonight, this time (thanks to my friend Lisa with the idea) with a margarita or two!   I will be pointing fingers and laughing at the over-the-top costumes live on facebook, so come to the party if you'd like.

6.  I get to go watch one of my favorite new shows after I finish up here.  Give Being Erica a shot.  It's a great little girlie show made in Canada on a horrible network, (soapnet, yikes!) but don't hold that against it.  I found it after day 11 of bedrest and immediately programmed it into my DVR.  Like Felicity, the later years.

Well, that's just about all the Pollyanna-ing I can do in one day without ruining my street cred.  Yes, I said street cred.  I feel like a teenager today, but I still have the vocab of a middle aged mom.  Oh well.
 

I lied.

Not all Olympic sports are created equal.

Dude is missing a "d" on his last name.  I can't believe I watched this and many other poorly costumed men last night.  Lord help us all.

Olympidiot

How did I not know this before...my husband hates the Olympics.  Who hates the Olympics?  Really?  Seriously?  How do you hate the Olympics?

I love all the cheesy back stories on the athletes and the warm feeling you get watching someone stand on the podium to grab their gold and listen to their (boring) anthem.  No surprise here, I love the sap. 

I used to LOVE watching ice skating.  I remember watching skating then taking my roller skates (now called quads for you youngins) down to our scary basement and reliving the dream.  A good program is a little bit of magic...OK a little bit of magic set to bad music, but special none the less. Oh, don't get me wrong, there is also something awesome about hearing the "awwwwwww" from the announcers and the audience when the skaters splat on the ice too.  Heheh.

I remember being 8 and watching Mary Lou Retton from my couch.  Magic.  Since then, I always try to stick my landings and throw my hands up in the air like a good vaulter if I'm jumping more than a few inches off the ground...yea, I wish I was kidding.

I will even watch sports I never heard of 6 minutes previous to sitting down on the couch.   Rhythmic speed skiing?  Sure, I'm in as long as one of the athletes has a sibling with a heinous disease or horrible childhood and I can listen to their plight for the next half-hour.

I always wonder how these people found their sport.  Really, how do you know you are a world class luger?  Or, what I REALLY want to know...how do I know I wasn't meant to be a world-class luger and just never had the opportunity?  I could be living the dream!

I get that if one of your parents ever did it, you get to take a shot at that sport too.  That seems right.  But what about all the kids of parents who sit on their couch and watch the Olympics?  How will they find their sport?  Or what if you try to be good at the wrong one?  What if you think you are a great skater and you give it a whirl but if you had ever put on a pair of skis you would have been impossible to beat?

There are just too many variables...unless you are from China.  There they have your DNA analyzed in-utero and you are put into a training program on your way out of your mom's yoo-who (or in China yu-hu).

My daughter was watching skating last night and she looked over to me and out-of the blue said "skating just isn't going to be my sport mom."  I thought that was profound.   (Considering the girl can hardly take 10 steps without tripping over herself, I also knew it was true.)   I then asked her if she knew what her sport was yet and she looked and me and said "Ummm, maybe soccer, but I'm only 6, so maybe I'll change."  Brilliant.