The brain break today involved chopsticks and superballs, a throwback to my graduate school days. Back then, I shared an office with 3 other MA candidates at ODU. We were all teaching Freshman Composition, and we had a lot of ways to avoid grading the awful essays we assigned. In addition to going out to lunch and drinking beer and shooting pool, when we were actually in the office, we often ordered takeout.
It was one sleepy afternoon, after a heavy Chinese meal, when I plucked a superball from the junk bowl on my desk with an extra pair of chopsticks and bounced off the tile floor, trying to catch it. My colleagues, at first amused by my ridiculous attempts, were both amazed and delighted when I managed to pluck the ball from the air.
After that, everyone was armed with chopsticks, and our superball collection grew every time we passed a gum machine with a quarter. It turned out that catching superballs with chopsticks was not a one-off, and we experimented with different game rules for Chopball, as we called it, throughout the semester, as well as gifting each other several sets of fancy chopsticks from Pier 1. For years I always had a tin of high-bounce balls and a bunch of chopsticks, but also for years, I have not owned either.
Until this week! Something reminded me of those Chopball days, and I was inspired to order a couple dozen superballs and sets of chopsticks. For under 20 bucks, I was up and running, but without a consistent game framework. Over the weekend, it occurred to me that we could adapt the rules of "Rob the Nest" and that is what we did. The quick little game was a big success, and I'll definitely add it to my collection.
Who says grad school doesn't prepare you for life?
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