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?