"So, are you right- or left-handed?" she asked as she scooped frosting into a pastry bag and handed it to me.
Right, i answered, and she grabbed another pastry bag for herself and said, "Well, I'm left-handed, so instead of standing next to me, stand on the other side of the table and watch how I hold the bag."
Watching her demonstrate frosting techniques from the other side of the steel table, my mind went back to trying to teach my four left-handed children things like tying their shoes and holding a pencil. Most of the time, i would take them in the bathroom and do whatever it was i wanted them to learn in front of the mirror, and tell them to copy the mirror image, which worked quite well.
"You see," her voice brought me out of my reverie, "you put your dominant hand at the top of the bag, that's where the power comes from, and your non-dominant hand is at the bottom just to guide the bag around."
Right hand at the top, left hand at the bottom, i practiced swirls and lines until the bag was empty, then learned to refill it, and started again.
Linking up with Uncharted Blog and Six Sentence Stories, where the cue is Left.
Today is:
A&W Rootbeer Mug Day -- see if you can frost your mug like they did
Birth of Baha'u'llah -- Baha'i
Birth of Sun Yat-Sen, Doctors Day, and Cultural Renaissance Day -- Taiwan
Chicken Soup for the Soul Day -- "Changing the world, one story at a time."
Constitution Day -- Azerbaijan
Deepavali/Diwali(Festival of Lights) -- Hindu; Jain; Sikh (3rd day of the festival)
Gai Tihar and Laxmi Puja -- Day of Cows and Laxmi (goddess of wealth; day three of the festival)
Dia del Cartero -- Mexico (Postman's Day; postal carriers are shown appreciation with small gifts left in mailboxes)
Fancy Rat and Mouse Day -- the American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association wants you to know these little critters can give you a lot of love
Jain New Year
Journee Nationale Maore -- Comoros (Admission to the UN Day)
Khalkeia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival of smiths, associated with Hephaists and Athena; date approximate)
National Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day
National Youth Day -- East Timor
Pirates Week Festival -- Cayman Islands (mock pirate invasions, old sailing vessels, and lots of good natured fun; through the 22nd)
St. Emillian's Day (Patron of Spain, finding lost objects)
St. Josaphat's Day (Patron of Edmonton, Alberta; Toronto, Ontario; Ukraine)
Tewa Buffalo Dance -- Native American Tewa of the Tesuque Pueblo rites on the feast day of their Patron, San Diego, to honor Mother Earth, Father Sky, the four directions, and the elements; through the 15th
Triple Crown of Surfing -- Oahu, HI, US (3 separate events, through Dec. 21)
World Pneumonia Day -- because we lose a million children a year to this preventable illness
Anniversaries Today:
The Arches National Park established, 1971
Ellis Island closes, 1954
Birthdays Today:
Anne Hathaway, 1982
Ryan Gosling, 1980
Sammy Sosa, 1968
Michael Moorer, 1967
David Schwimmer, 1966
Nadia Comaneci, 1961
Megan Mullally, 1958
Neil Young, 1945
Al Michaels, 1944
Wallace Shawn, 1943
Grace Kelly, 1929
Jo Stafford, 1918
Harry A. Blackmun, 1908
Sun Yat-sen, 1866
Auguste Rodin, 1840
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1815
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"Grand Hotel"(Musical), 1989
"Irma la Douce"(Musical), 1956
"Paint Your Wagon"(Musical), 1951
Song of the South(Disney film), 1946
The first Sunday American-style football game is held in Philadelphia, 1933
Today in History:
Tibetan troops occupy Chang'an, the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, for fifteen days starting today, 764
Plymouth, England, becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament, 1439
Sir James Young Simpson, a British physician, is the first to use chloroform as an anaesthetic, 1847
Jules Leotard performs 1st Flying Trapeze circus act (Paris); he also designed garment that bears his name, 1859
World's Fair in Paris opens, 1900
The first movie stunt: man jumps into Hudson river from a burning balloon, 1910
Norway holds a referendum in favor of monarchy over republic, 1905
Robert Scott's diary & body are found in Antarctica, 1912
Austria becomes a republic, 1918
The first underwater tunnel, the Holland Tunnel connecting NY to NJ opens, 1927
The first photo of whatever is in Loch Ness is taken, 1933
Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia join the United Nations, 1956
Equatorial Guinea joins the United Nations, 1968
The Comoros joins the United Nations, 1975
The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings, 1980
The Space Shuttle Columbia becomes the first time a manned spacecraft launched into space twice, 1981
Crown Prince Akihito is formally installed as Emperor Akihito of Japan, becoming the 125th Japanese monarch, 1990
Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web, 1990
Shanghai Transrapid sets up a new world speed record (501 kilometres per hour (311 mph)) for commercial railway systems, 2003
The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database is launched on the web and revolutionizes chemical-gene-disease information for research scientists, 2004
Philippine volcano Mount Bulusan erupts again, 2010
There are a lot of left handed people in our family. I have sometimes wondered how it evolved that people have different handedness. It would surely be much easier if we were all right handed. My conclusion is that it might have had an evolutionary advantage in the days when a leftie could swing a blow from an unexpected direction.....
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of left handed people in our family. I have sometimes wondered how it evolved that people have different handedness. It would surely be much easier if we were all right handed. My conclusion is that it might have had an evolutionary advantage in the days when a leftie could swing a blow from an unexpected direction.....
ReplyDeleteI took an informal cake decorating class from a Mormon friend years and years ago and went on to decorate many cakes because there was no bakery where we lived. I cannot remember the classes, but my cakes looked pretty good and I posted some on my blog years ago.
ReplyDeleteawesome. :)
ReplyDeleteI do some things left handed and somethings right handed and my wife says I do everything wrong.
ReplyDeleteLike my dad, I think I was one of those people born left handed, but was 'corrected' into right handedness. That's what they did back in the day.
ReplyDeleteThe big question is, did you learn how to decorate cakes?
Like my dad, I think I was one of those people born left handed, but was 'corrected' into right handedness. That's what they did back in the day.
ReplyDeleteThe big question is, did you learn how to decorate cakes?
Hubby is left handed.
ReplyDeleteDid you master the decorating? I'm guessing you did.
Have a fabulous day. ☺
Wonderful descriptive piece of what it's like to learn from someone who is/is not a southpaw but the opposite of you. As a lefty, the hardest thing for me to learn was knitting and crochet from illustrated manuals meant for right-handers, I still do it in a rather mixed up way, but it works. :-)
ReplyDeleteso that's how it's done!! lol (not being left-handed, this is a very interesting insight on the differences and an example of how so very valuable perspective can be!
ReplyDeleteWe have a couple lefties... But i never appreciated the difference of learning some tasks... Very cool.
ReplyDeleteWe have a couple lefties... But i never appreciated the difference of learning some tasks... Very cool.
ReplyDeleteWhat great advice. I recall with horror that many years ago teachers used to try to force left handed kids to use their right hands.
ReplyDelete