Today was pretty eventful in terms of buying stuff.
The kitties ran out of food so we headed to the vet for their expensive food. I swear these cats eat better than we do…well actually probably not but close. One of our cats has a food allergy so she has messy poops if she eats regular food…and I’m sure everyone wants to know that. Our other cat doesn’t have a poop problem but she loses all her hair if she eats regular food. So we’ve been buying this vet stuff and we’ve tried duck, lamb, rabbit, and venison. We first tried out the duck and rabbit thinking that in nature those would be the animals they’d probably eat and like. But no…our cats like the venison. We laugh everytime because we imagine our cats trying to take down some huge elk or something….we obviously have boring lives. haha
Afterwards we headed to capitola and hit up the fabric store. Yay! got some fabric so that I can make a knitting needle case so the cats won’t chew on them and for easy transport. Also I decided that plastic bags for produce is not great so I bought some white cotton fabric to make bags for produce that I need to bag. Plus I got more needles and random stuff so I’m pretty excited. Did some knitting today too and the pattern is coming out nicely since I’ve modified it.
Went over to Best Buy and I swear Nathan knows 50% of the santa cruz county people because of where he works. And to be honest I’m a completely jealous person. It seems like everytime we go somewhere there is some young woman waving and saying hi (and there are men too) and I just want to wear a shirt that says ‘He’s mine so don’t even think about it’. It’s pretty lame considering we’ve been together for almost 4 years…haha it’s pretty funny though for us looking back after a few hours and reflect on how I am. But anyway back to the story. So we went originally to see if there would be a cheap power supply for our friend’s computer that Nathan is fixing. Turned out there wasn’t. But there were 2 Wiis. We’ve been wanting one forever and Nathan actually got one last year but sold it to a friend who had been waiting in line a few times and never got one. So we’ve been waiting and today it seemed to be calling for us.
We ended up buying our Wii. Our beautiful little Wii. We also got the Zelda game which is really for me because I’m such a zelda fan. It’s funny because I’ve owned (well now Nathan and I) all of the Nintendo platforms except for the first one but my aunt had one so I can sort of count that.
We came home and Nathan hooked up the Wii and we were really excited to play the sport games because they’re really fun and we’re both competitive. But now I’m sitting here a tiny bit upset and sort of laughing at myself at the same time.
The thing that bothers me is that I suck at sports. And it’s not because I don’t like them or because I’m not made for sports. It comes down to the simple fact that I’m a lefty. I realized tonight that I’ve learned how to play all sports as a right-hander but not very well because a. I don’t play them often and b. it’s against my nature. I can actually play sports (and Wii sports) better with my right arm simply because no one taught me properly how to play with my left. But I’m constantly having to rethink how to play because I’m stilling think as a lefty but with a right arm. We were playing baseball and I was trying to use my left arm and I couldn’t even understand how to hold my arm because I wanted to hold the controller like I do on my right. Logically I would simply play with my right arm since I’m more physically comfortable with that position but I can still feel myself trying to figure out how the curveball or bat will swing from that position. It doesn’t feel right in either arm (or foot).
And what it comes down to is that I live in a society that supports structural lefty-ism. It’s funny because I think about this almost everyday. I actually once wrote a paper that mentioned how my childhood was affected by this and it’s probably why I willing taught myself right-handed things to make life easier. But no one ever told me that I shouldn’t have to do that. Like scissors. When I was a young girl they had two types of scissors…lefty and righty. The right-handed ones were long, sharp edged, and a child could fit their entire hand in the one handle with the thumb in the other one. The left-handed ones were half the size and the handles were only big enough to place my forefinger in and my thumb in the other. Plus the blades were rounded so I wouldn’t hurt myself. Another example would be knives. Our kitchen knives are built for the comfort and control of right-handers but I use my left hand so the knife doesn’t hold well at all.
It sounds petty but I really feel confused sometimes having to do things and wonder which way to do it. Things that haven’t been taught to me I automatically do left-handed but there are so many programed activities that I do right-handed. Another example is knitting actually. I bought my first supply about a year ago and couldn’t learn because I was looking at websites that mainly did the english style that is right-handed. I gave up for a time because I couldn’t translate the process because I was trying to do the style left-handed and I kept messing up. Then this summer I bought a book that showed a left-handed style and I picked up knitting quickly. Of course now that I’m doing Fair Isle knitting I’ve learned both but the english style is still strange to me.
And you know what? The only consolation I get for being left-handed is that I’m supposed to be more ‘creative’ than right-handers. But I seriously think everytime I’ve read that statement has been followed by ‘left-handers have shorter lives than right-handers’. So I’m screwed either way. I know lefties are a minority but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be taken into consideration. Like when I was in college…the theatre sitting was arranged so that all the left end seats had tables for lefties. But I would walk into class and all of them would be taken by righties who weren’t taking notes so I had to balance my notebook on my knee instead. I could have used the right-hand table but then I would lean so far over that the person next to my felt like I was cheating or invading their space.
We’ve come a long way since the time when lefties were forced to become righties but I do really feel like there should be more lefty rights. Often times left-handed items cost more than right-handed items which is just unfair. So I’m upset now but I still had a good time playing the Wii. I just am bothered that I have to relearn certain things or succumb to a life of faux right-handedness.
In other news I made some Cornmeal drop biscuits today. Thought I’d take a break from muffins and they turned out nicely. They do look a bit like cookies in terms of form which seems strange. We also placed Buzz (our spider plant) in the main room. We bought him so that maybe our birds would like to sit in a plant but they gave him a buzzcut so we decided that he’d be better off in the main room if we wanted him to live. Our outdoor cactus has a huge flower and baby cacti are forming around the base so we might buy a bigger pot so he can grow into a big cactus with many little baby cacti. Take care and eat good food.
::update:: so I originally said ‘institutional lefty-ism’ and I thing I was typing too much to realize that is not what I meant. haha good think I reread my new stuff. Anyway I meant structural lefty-ism in which our society is structured to make lefties have a harder time but I suppose ‘institutional’ could work as well. I suppose it could mean the same thing in terms of government, schools, progams, etc being an institution that supports rightie ways. But either way I’m not an intellectual but I do think that ’structural’ is the better term and I feel kind of lame for not having caught that last night. Maybe I was just too upset.
