and I will tell you why.
(Although I know people get really touchy about “blanket statements” of any kind … There are always exceptions to every rule – I myself am an exception to many ‘this is what women are like’ rules – but still. I certainly can appreciate a moment like the one I am about to tell)
Someone had a birthday party at work, and there are balloons floating about on the floor. One wandered into our area. 4 of us work back here, 2 of us are women, and 2 are men. Everyone is very cool, I like them all.
The female co-worker and I started batting the balloon back and forth, as though we were at a volleyball game. It was all rather desultory, the two of us bored, talking to each other about other things, as we batted it back and forth.
Then the two guys got involved, and within literally THREE SECONDS, an entire game, with a complicated rule system emerged. A point-system blossomed forth, and disqualifications were discussed – all of this seemed to happen immediatley, like flowers opening up on speeded-up film. The game just MANIFESTED.
“Okay. So you have to stay seated in your chair. No standing. We have to kick the balloon back and forth.”
“Yeah! Cool! And it’s 2 points if you land it right on top of that plant.”
“And it’s 5 points if it goes all the way across the table.”
“And you win the game if it lands on something sharp and it pops…”
“Yeah, cool! Okay – go!”
A structure was zip-zip-zip created, and then we were all off to the races.
We began to play this suddenly-created game with ferocity, kicking the balloon around, screaming out, “2 points!”, “5 points!”
That alone is evidence of why I think men are so great. Please, women, I know that we create things, too, but I’m talking about basic Darwinian playground behavior here, and it was when the boys leapt into the fray that RULES appeared. My female co-worker and I would NEVER have just feverishly created rules and scoring and foul zones. It took the BOYS to come in and do that. And it was so funny, because we all immediately accepted the rules, no question.
“Oh, of course. 2 points if you get it there. Sure.”
Once the game died down, I commented, “I absolutely love it that when the BOYS got involved, an entire scoring system was created from nothing.”
We all just started laughing!
Playground behavior. Live from New York.
Well, without rules you can’t have competition, and without competition why then, how do you know who won? Somebody’s gotta be the Alpha of office balloon ball. ;-)
We figure that anything worth doing is worth keeping score while doing so. During an engagement party two years ago, we turned a simple pool volleyball game into a best two out of three, 15 point game competition. I pulled about five muscles, but we won and it was worth it.
What y’all said, plus this observation:
“There are always exceptions to every rule”
Isn’t that a self-contradictory statement? I mean, think about it.
(Oh, and did I actually write “y’all?!)
Dear Sheila:
I must have missed that gene — I probably would have ignored the whole thing and either gotten back to work, or gone to see a customer….
(Maybe I’m missing some testosterone.)
Best,
-Will
sheil..remember voll-knee-ball??? Brian’s version of a simple lawn game???
Dave J:
One of my favorite quotes is Walt Whitman’s:
Do I contradict myself?
Yes, I contradict myself.
I am large
I contain multitudes
From the Reciprocal File:
Women are great. The other night, I’m talking to my mom on the phone and I tell her how sometimes I look at my fiance when we’re doing something normal like watching TV and think “There’s no place else I’d like to be at the moment.” My mom says, “You know you could tell her that instead of me. Girls like to hear that stuff.” I was stating it as a matter of fact, not romance. It never occurred to me that it was actually a nice thing to say. Women help you see the obvious.
Yes, I agree. We rule.
We had a similar office sport in my old job called “sectorball”- sort of an adult version of Dodgeball in which we batted around a nerf football, and if it landed in your cubicle (“sector”) you were eliminated. We’d play for hours…
Popskull:
Mothers. Gotta love ’em, don’t you think??
Did I know that you were engaged, by the way?
Steve: “sectorball”. Ha!
I’m reminded of the time some friends and I created this complicated game involving a roll of toilet paper. We creatively called it The Stupid Game. You’re damn right beer was involved.
HAHAHA
Let me know next time you guys are playing the balloon game, I’ll come down to your office and join in.
No, red, this was my infinitely subtle way of telling you I’m engaged. For two weeks now. Which is why I’m telling cute stories of love instead of cool stories of office bloodsport.
Our unimaginitive office basically shot rubberbands at the clock (which was set six minutes slow, so you’d actually stay til five). Kudos WERE given for gauge of rubberband and distance from clock.
Your side of the office is so much more fun than mine.
My favorite office game was the time (on an earlier job many years ago) when we hung numerous Christmas balls from the ceiling, then tired to shoot them down with rubber bands sometime around New Year’s. I think we did keep score (I was the only guy in the room), but I can’t remember who won…
Yet Another Reason why Men Rock!
This reminds me of the first job I ever worked, at a warehouse. The way the warehouse was set up, there were two aisles down either side, with narrower aisles across the front and back. You could move skids fill of stuff in a circle around the wareho…
Better Than Office Politics: Office Sports
Sheilas got a post today about how a couple of co-workers saw her playing with a balloon and used it to create an impromptu sport, complete with rules and everything. Ms. OMalley uses this as an example of why, due…
We has a 12 hole golf course in our office for late night. It was all put-put except for one whole, which we were allowed to use a pitching-wedge (it was a long hallway). Then again, with a pitching-wedge we’d often break stuff (that got written off- thank you dot-com era accounting).
Rules, rules, who needs RULES?
Why?
Over here in Korea, there aren’t too many rules (whether stated or implicit) that make much sense to westerners.
And if I believed in others’ rules I wouldn’t be doing what I wanted to with my life.