Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Funny, but not so PC

So our India Team got our first round of shots yesterday. As a result my arm has been hurty. It was unpleasant during the exam I wrote a couple of hours after the shots. But whatever, its saves getting Hepatitis.

This morning as I was noticing that my arm was still quite hurty I contemplated emailing the team and asking them if they too felt like they had an ill-fitting prosthetic. Then I realized that having never had an artificial limb it might be in bad taste to send out such an email.

BUT, this got me to thinking about a thing that happened in high school that I would categorize as funny.

Whilst I was in high school I pretended to be athletic. I did this by being on the basketball, volleyball and track teams. All of this athletic activity aggravated my bum left knee. So I wore a neoprene brace to give lefty some extra support. I also had developed my (so far) life long problem of not wanting to remove the hair from my legs. To compensate I often wore very high socks, like baseball or soccer socks.

At the same time as all of this was happening I was the morning announcement girl. I would do the P.A system thing and then go down to class. One semester this was Phys Ed, so I had to run down from the main office, get changed and join my class. (I was also the athletic council president at the time, so the PE teachers loved me and didn't mind that i was late everyday).

One day I came out of the change room in my usual gym shirt, big basketball shorts, knee brace, high socks and court shoes, and joined the class in instruction for the class. As I was about to sit down this guy Mark blurts out, "Do you have a fake leg or something?" A good laugh was had and I asked him why he thought that. He pointed out that the only bit of skin showing on my left leg was right at my knee cap (the moving-type hole in the brace). I told him that I did indeed have a "fake leg", and it was such a good one that it grew hair. He was impressed. End of story.

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