I Always Find Some Way to Make Myself Look Like an Idiot

For those of you who read the title and said, "look like an idiot?" go ahead and SHUT UP:)

One of my friends from high school Tiffany invited Brent and I to come over to her house for game night tonight. Yay! I love, love, love to play games! We started out the night with a little game night goodies (wings, chips and dip, BBQ sandwiches, cookies, and cake). Then, we "let the game begin." First we played Boxers or Briefs where I did fairly well in the beginning until William started spanking all of us. After that my humiliation began.

We played Catch Phrase (my favorite game well, besides Trouble) next. The first round went well, but the next time it was my turn to describe I was the butt of everyone's joke. So it came to me and the word on the screen as I read it was "Bal one y." My description began by asking what does a gymnast have to do on the beam? Emily said "Balance." Just the first syllable I instructed. I proceded to the next syllable of the word and gave the clue, "It's the first number when you count." Everyone yelled, "one!" Okay the last clue was tricky. I said, "This letter when placed at the end of a word makes the sound /e/. The teacher Tiffany said, "y." She must know her phonics:) They blended it together as "Bal One y." Being so proud of myself for tackling that difficult word, I passed the game piece quickly to Brent just before the timer went off. Everyone was very confused by the word I got and no one seemed to know what it was (I'm so good that I got my team to guess a word that no one knew). Yeah Right! Brent looks down at the screen without even thinking and said, "Umm...That says baloney." Everyone laughs hysterically...including myself. I am such an idiot. I honestly thought that the only way baloney could be spelled was bologna, but I guess they don't teach that in first grade.

Having this embarrassing moment happen to me tonight made me think back to high school. It was the week of prom, and I was on the prom committee (my 11th grade year). They wanted us to do some things about staying sober during prom and not drinking and driving. I had to read some type of information relating to that over the loud speaker (for EVERYONE to hear). I came across an unfamiliar word, but I tackled it immediately. I said, "ma can ism." I really didn't think it made much sense and I knew I had messed up, but after completing my reading I looked over and over the word again and came up with the same thing so I guess I was right after all. WRONG! I got back to class and everyone was laughing so hard at me and the teacher looked at me and said, "Tonya, the word is mechanism." I was humiliated, and I really haven't read anything lengthy in front of people my own age since then. I was scarred for life.

So next time you have a moment where your phonics skills don't work for you and you embarrass yourself in front of someone, just remember that I'm an idiot too. Join me on my journey in the life of an idiot who cannot read. So why is it that God has called me to teach six and seven year olds how to read?

The rest of the night was great. Thanks Alton and Tiffany for a fabulous game night!