Life at the House of Skills

by Crazy Ivan

The other day I was on the phone with Myachi Man.  While we were talking I stepped outside and started juggling the soccer ball that Monk always leaves on the patio.  I'm terrible at soccer-juggling, but as I am the type that always wants to learn something new, I figured I might as well get some practice while I wasn't using my feet for anything else.

Myachi Man got an important call so he asks if he can call me back in a few minutes.  "Sure", I reply and then hang up.  With a few minutes to kill, I decide to hop up on the slack line and practice my two footed mounts (strangely, these are much tougher than one footed mounts).  I kept this up for about ten minutes and then MM called back and we continued our conversation.

While I was on the phone with him, I went back inside where Animal was hard at work mastering a ring-spinning trick.  I gave him some advice on that as I finished up my phone conversation and then headed upstairs to talk to Monk about a few things.\

When I got there, he and Maverick were challenging each other to do tricks with a little tin of mints.  They were trying to do a Wolverine to a Stiff Arm to a Mantis to a Faceplant with it.  Keeping in mind that it's round, less than half the size of a Myachi and weighs almost nothing, you can see where the challenge comes in.

Obviously, I hopped in on this.  I note with pride that I actually got it on the first try, though I tried a few more times and couldn't hit it again right away.  Monk and I talked business for a few minutes, but as we did Maverick abandoned the little tin and fetched a footbag from his room.  Before I knew it, he, Monk and I were in a circle, hacking as we discussed scheduling changes and upcoming school events.

Once we'd cleared everything up on that end, I went down to the basement.  I was itching to play guitar and since I was technically done working at that point, I spent the next half hour practicing jazz riffs.

At some point, it occurred to me that this is not how most people live.  Most of the people I know have one or two hobbies that occupy their time.  At the House of Skills, our hobbies tend to be hobby-collecting.  In any given day, any one of us will probably be practicing at least half a dozen new skills.  In any given day, at least one of us will learn a new trick or accomplish something we've never done before.  On any given day, at least one of us will set a personal record and occasionally even a world record.

There are some disadvantages to having 6 roommates, especially when you live in the basement apartment and your roomies stay up late doing foot tricks and dropping juggling props.  I think that living at the House of Skills would drive most people crazy after a few weeks.  They'd tire of having to scoot around somebody on a balance board on their way to the fridge.  They'd tire of dodging Nerf darts when they cut through the living room.  They'd tire of hearing several voices erupt in excitement every time somebody bests a new challenge.

But for people like me (and here's hoping that's a very small fraction of the world's populace) there could be no better place to live.