02 23 00

confession

I have a terrible confession to make.

It's one of those things that you don't discuss in polite company. It's one of those things that you try to change, but not matter how hard you try you just can't. I have tried. I can't. It's been with me since I was a child. Dave knows, and the sweetheart doesn't mention it unless I do. It's a source of embarrassment to me, and only a few of my closest friends know of it. My parents know, and they tease me about it occasionally.

I'm twenty-five years old, and I can't tie my shoes.

Now, I don't go around with Velcro shoes or anything. I have many shoes with shoelaces and they end up tied... But not in the "normal" way.

Most people tie their shoes using one loop. You know, the "bunny goes around the hole, then through the hole" or whatever. They make one loop, do something, and the shoe ends up tied. I can't do that.

I've had friends try to teach me. I've had people spend up to an hour with me, working on one shoe to get it tied. I've watched people tie their shoes, real close-up views with my nose right down there next to their stinky sneaker, trying to figure out how they do it. I can't. I can't do it.

I make bunny ears.

With each lace, I make two bunny ears, and tie them together in a knot. When I try the other method, the "normal" method, I end up with a sloppy mess that doesn't even vaguely look like a tied shoe. When I use my method, I end up with a shoe that's nicely tied, nice and tight.

See, when I was little I taught myself to tie my own shoes. No one showed me; I just figured it out by myself, using the bunny ears. I've never been able to get away from that.

My mother blames herself, of course.

About a year ago she saw a show on parenting that said babies who never creep lose out on developing their fine motor skills. (Creeping is also known as crawling in some parts of the world.) I learned how to sit up, and then I learned how to stand up, and then I learned how to walk. I never learned how to creep.

The show said that babies who don't creep often have problems later in life with fine motor skills, such as cursive writing and shoelace tying.

I can't write in cursive, either.

Is there a support group for adults who can't tie their shoes? If you know of one, please let me know.

In Other News

Uh, yes. I still have a dead rat in my freezer.

Don't give me that look. What the hell was I supposed to do?

However, this will not be a problem for much longer. Our temperature is climbing nicely, and we reached almost 65 degrees (F) today. By Friday the temperature is supposed to get into the mid-70s. (Wow! If this is global warming, bring it on!) I'll go over to my parents' house tomorrow before work and bury Aurora while the ground is still thawed - before our next cold wave hits.

I still miss her a lot, but I am certainly happy to get her out of my freezer.

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