Let's Be Real

I've begun to realize that no matter what I tell myself, I am a right-handed individual.

When crossing my legs, it is totally unnatural for me to cross my left leg over my right leg.  I can't operate a curling iron quite as well as my right hand.  And I've truly discovered how the world is really favoring the right-handed folks.

For example, take a picture.  Take a picture as in, hold the camera and press a button.  Please notice that the button in on the right side of the camera.  Hmm.  Also, please look at a computer's keyboard.  Notice that there is only one 'enter' key, and it is on the right side. 

It's self-acceptance week here at NMU

Whether it's the fact that you wish you had blue eyes, the fact that you wish you were taller,  the fact that you wish you weren't so tall, or even the fact that you wish you were left-handed---> Sadly, we need to accept us for who we are... this week at least.


While there are plenty of blogs on being left-handed out there in cyberspace, there seems to be a lack of right-handed blogsin existence.  Surprised?  Eh, probably not.  It may be a little monotonous to post blogs about routines that have little difficulty because much of everything is adapted for the right-hander:  it's kind of a nice thing I suppose.

Holy Wah!

<--- What do you see this as?  That's the question of the century... or of the moment

If one goes to type in Google, "Left-handed blogs," one will be utterly amazed (Or, I suppose "amaze" isn't accurate for everyone) at all of them.  While I am certainly just a left-handed wannabe, there are Legitimate stories about the struggles of being a southpaw.  


 Are you a left-hander?  Don't doubt your capabilities!  Take the test.  Go ahead.  Do it.

http://www.beinglefthanded.com/Left-Handed-Test.html 

I just asked the left-handed classmate to my right (Dana) to draw a circle... I watched intently.  Next, was to find a right-handed person (Katrina) to draw a circle.  She too did it counter-clockwise.  Hmm.  Interesting. 

I can't attribute this information to research at Harvard or even Yale, but I did find that the chance of being a left-handed kiddo when your parents are right-handed is just 2%.  However, when one's parents are both left-handed, the kiddo's shot at being a southpaw jumps to 42%... still less than half.
"While being left handed isn’t a big deal anymore, once upon a time it was extremely frowned upon. For instance, in India and Indonesia, it is considered extremely impolite to eat with the left hand, as this is the hand that is used to “cleanse” oneself. Therefore, the left hand is considered dirty. In addition, teachers in America used to slap the wrists of students who attempted to write with their left hands.
Aside from past ridicule of society, lefties also face many other struggles when it comes to using scissors, knives, cameras, tools, watches, etc. Every one of these objects need the complete opposite design in order to accommodate the needs of a lefty. Fortunately, left handers of today are treated with much more consideration, and virtually any tool can be designed for left handed individuals.
Therefore, if you use your left hand over your right, or your child does, this is quite natural, and shouldn’t be something for you to worry about. Just make sure that you provide your child with all of the help they need to make the most of their abilities. Remember, there is nothing wrong about being left handed, event though it can sometimes prove to be difficult in a world with a predominant right handed population."

Quotes

If you hold a four-leaf shamrock in your left hand at dawn on St. Patrick's Day you get what you want very much but haven't wished for.  ~Patricia Lynch

Today is St. Patrick's Day, so in celebration of that, Happy St. Patrick's Day.  This morning I was studying for a rather large test next week when a friend came out of his way to pinch me.  While I was wondering why he was so dressed in green, he quickly informed me of his day's activities.


While I tried to support my case that I indeed have a green backpack, he really didn't care.  Interestingly, he pinched my left arm.  Interesting.


So, apparently, there is some sort of connection between ole St. Pats Day and the left side of one's body, or not.  

Thirsty? What way will you tilt?

It seems that many of my stories I share with people involve either me running, or at running events.  This case is no different.  It was after the last race a couple of my teammates and I were cooling down.  For those of you who are not runners, cooling down means to release the lactic acid that has built up in the legs.  For those of you who don't like terms such as "lactic acid," it simply is getting rid of that tight feeling.  Good, that is cleared up.

We were jogging down this carpeted hallway, when this drinking fountain looked rather appealing.  I stopped.  The teammates I was running with stopped.  I bent over, and tilted my head to the left.

"Whoa!, it's on the left side!  Isn't the water spigot usually on the right?!"

I feel like the majority of water fountains I've used in my short lifetime have had the spigots on the right side, so I was rather excited to see this one accommodated for the left-handed thinkers. 

"Brittany!  Sarah!  Isn't this weird?"

They really didn't care about what side they tilted their head toward to get some water.  I walked away rather pleased not only because I was no longer thirsty, but because I realized the world is striving for equality in water bubblers.. kind of.

Update.

I have largely thrown in the towel to writing left-handed in many of my classes.  Why?, you may ask?  Well the answer is simple.  I lack the self-control.  However... here's some left-hand vs Right-hand pictures of notes.  They're not too shabby.  Enjoy the human communication notes. 

Snap, Crackle, and Pop

I'm starting to pay attention to things more closely.  At the same time, I think I'm starting to annoy everyone around me too.  For instance, this week we have our indoor conference track meet down at Saginaw.  We made sandwiches for lunch while we were on the bus.  My seat partner and I made ours at the same time.  While we were eating the turkey, cheese, and bread combination, I noticed that Sara, my seat partner and roommate, ate the upper right-hand corner of her sandwich first.  However, I ate the upper left-hand corner first.  I proceeded to point that out, and get told that I need to stop over analyzing EVERYTHING.

Another interesting fact is that I now sleep on my left side.  Honest to goodness there may be a transformation taking place.  Who knows

The "Snap, Crackle, Pop" title was inspired by Mandy my roommate for the weekend because she was looking at a Kellogg's website.  Zero relevance otherwise.

Saddle Up Pinky

Over winter break, I went to my boyfriend's home.  While there, he thought it would be a good idea to go horseback riding.  Since I had never done it, I was all for it.  However, at one moment, the horse I was riding spooked, and I jammed my pinky on the horn of the saddle.  I know, right now you're thinking, "Poor Rita."  If you're not, you should be.  After subtle whining to several family members, I got it checked out to discover it was in fact sprained.  YES!  I was really hoping there was reason for my wailing.

When we needed a topic for this blog project, I struggled to come up with ideas.  I've always wished I was left-handed, and since my right pinky was injured, it only seemed appropriate to try the left handed approach.  After weeks of left-hand implementation-ness, I tried to brush my teeth with my right hand.  That gosh darn pinky is still sore!  My goodness.  What will it take. 

Ankle Deep in Facts

I'm not going to name names or point fingers, but I've had to deal with problems.  For one, I've vowed that I'm going to use my right hand to write notes in a particular class.  Okay, I will name the class at least:  communication theory.  My gosh, does the professor talk fast and write even faster.  His policy of zero computer use really puts me in a pickle.  For pure academic reason, I need to be right-handed in that class, or my gpa may suffer tremendously.  However, I have the brushing of the teeth and eating with the left hand down to an art. 

I've become even more observant of people who are left handed.  Right now I see a girl with a cup on coffee on the table to the right of her computer, aha!, she must be right-handed.  At the same time, I glance over to see a man holding a pen with his left hand, but he just drank coffee with his right, tricky.  It may seen that I am observing people's actions a little too closely, but what they don't know can't hurt them, right?  Accordingly to an online source, only 10-15% of people are left-handed.  Why is that?   Since there are basically only two options of orientation (right or left handed) why are the statistics not 50/50?  We live in a world that just does not make sense.

History regarding this left-handedness:

In the late 1890's, left handed people got the nickname of southpaw.  Most baseball fields were laid out where the pitcher is facing west and the batter is facing east, so the sun wouldn't be in the batter's eyes.  When a left-handed pitcher threw a ball, is was with his arm that was toward the south, hence, "southpaw."

Some cultures strapped their children's left arms to their cradle board, and this caused most infants to become right-handed.  In many cases infants were forced to use their right hand.  I believe I am one of them.

How interesting is it that people were restrained from using the left hand.  Maybe, just maybe, I will march over to the man holding his pen in his left hand and force him to put it in his right hand.  Second thought, I will restrain myself.

Minor Debachels

I run track for NMU.  This weekend we had a meet down at Stevens Point, Wisconsin.  Because of the small indoor track facility, the distance running team was encouraged to warm up for the race outside.  I grabbed my ipod touch and headed outside with my teammate Chelsea.  Without thinking, I put my ipod touch armband on my left arm.  "Shoot."  I proceeded to take if off the left arm and put it on my right arm.  It was a weird feeling.  After that decision, I realized the ipod touch is designed for the right handed individual!  One has to hold and slide this bar from left to right.  Not an easy task especially while running. 

One more item that I've really noticed being designed for the right-handed individual is a floss container.  Try to remove floss from the spool container with your left hand.  Yeah, that's what I thought, not an easy task.  Flossing daily was one of my new year's resolutions, so I'm not going to stray from it simply because the retrieval of floss is now more difficult.  From running with an ipod to flossing teeth, I am definitely realizing that this left handed business is harder than I thought.  Give me time, and I'll master it.  Luckily, I have the rest of the semester.

A New Era.

 I'm convinced that as a young child, my mother swiped the crayon I was holding in my left hand only to place it in my right hand.  I am.  To most, it's beyond ridiculous that I WANT to be left-handed because the world is designed for the right-handed individual.  I all too often end up doing simple tasks the hard way.  For that reason, I continue to proclaim my desire to be in the minority.

Let's try out this left-handed business.  My watch is fastened to my right wrist.  It's official . . . I'm doing this.  The morning is over, so everything is downhill from here.  After talking to my suite mate Brittany, I realized this is going to be harder than I initially thought.  "How am I going to do my hair?"  I'm thinking on the days I decide to actually do something with my hair ,some burns may be consequences.  We'll see when that point comes.  For today, I'm going with a pony tail, but even that involves having my hair tie on the right wrist too--weird.  For breakfast, I opt for the usual oatmeal with sugar and cinnamon.  Interestingly enough, the left side of the bowl has more sugar and cinnamon than the right side-- that's annoying.  Luckily, I grabbed a spoon (with the left hand of course), and stirred the living daylights out of the oatmeal to blend it to my standard.  While sitting in English class, I noticed a pasty substance on my left hand... o wait, that's toothpaste yet from since BEFORE breakfast.  This semester is going to be messy... in more ways than one.