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Guess the Sport

A short while back, I stopped by my friend's house warming party. I hadn't seen the guy in a while, so I was looking forward to catching up with him. As it turned out, there were a bunch of people at the shindig, so I got to talk to my share of his other friends. That would end up causing quite a bit of laughter.

You see, both my buddy and his girlfriend played quite a bit of ultimate Frisbee, so many of their friends came from that social circle. So when I would ask someone how they knew the hosts, it wasn't unheard of to hear, "oh I played ultimate with one of them." It was interesting meeting this other social circle, but the best part, by far, was when I met one of them who happened to be a trainer of some sort.

When she told me she played with the hosts, I replied with something along the lines of, "oh cool, not me, though. I don't play ultimate." Taking that as her cue, she launched into a one-woman game of What Does Sam Play Then? Mind you, I was in a sweatshirt and jeans, so it's not like I was making it easy for her to see distinguishing features, clothing that would give hints, or even body type. Still, she and her boyfriend decided that this would be an amusing way to pass several minutes.

Her first guess was basketball, eerily enough. I say that was eery because I do, in fact, like to step on the basketball court every now and again. That was a heck of a first guess, and I laughed in approval. Bolstered by this initial success, the guesses kept coming. In succession, they were: no football, definitely some martial arts, and maybe some baseball. Yup, pretty much. I've never played organized football; the closest I've ever come was pickup games of touch football at recess when I was a kid. I used to take kickboxing with a friend, and I even competed in a competition once. Lastly, I played intramural softball for a while, so the baseball guess wasn't too far off, either.

Man, this lady was good. I'd just met her a few minutes ago, but she was reading me like a book. Then, she threw out the last guess, "definitely not a swimmer." That was true enough, water and I don't exactly get along super well. But a small part of my pride started chattering in my head, "and why the heck not? You COULD be a swimmer." Luckily this didn't kick in right away, or even that strongly, for that matter. Still, it was there, and I couldn't help but laugh at myself when I realized what I was thinking.

All in all, those three or four minutes at the party gave me a good hearty laugh, and may have possibly been the highlight of the night (other than seeing my friends). They also gave me motivation to become a better swimmer, so I may very well pick it up one of these days. Lastly, but certainly not least, if you want to meet someone who has darn near psychic powers, I know someone with whom you should talk.

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