Playing outside the box

I am not a particularly handy person.

All those ‘it will just take a minute” jobs most people whip through without pause still perplex me.

Rightie tightie ? Lefty loosey? I don’t know. I always figure I have a 50/50 shot.

I’m pretty sure I can identify a Phillips head screwdriver, but I can almost never locate one in my house.

And hex wrenches? Well, they just sound ominous, don’t they?

So, imagine my glee when I assembled myself a new office chair. But wait, it’s me. You don’t even have to imagine my glee because I asked my co-worker Beth (who had assembed her own office chair the week before without any fuss at all) to document the occasion.

“Oh my God, I did it,” I said as I ever-so-gently lowered my backside into it. “This is amazing.”

I gave it a twirl and waited for the plink of an errant screw. But, she held her form! I texted my family and got a “Wow! Well done!” from my loyal daughter Katherine. (Silence from the rest of the crew, so I figured I’d rendered them speechless with pride.)

The day went on and, with it, came the usual frustrations of a busy life. None of it bothered me, though, because I had assembled a chair. All by myself! I grinned like Jack Sparrow striking a pose. All day.

But, that isn’t even the best part. Because you know what’s left when you assemble a chair (besides a couple of extra screws helpfully labeled “spare” so you don’t have to wonder where they were supposed to go)? That’s right, my handy friends, the box.

In fact, I scored two giant boxes thanks to the whole office chair upgrade project we have going on. I wrestled them home and into our family room where two little boys found them and thought Santa had come back for a spring encore.

I helped them saw in some windows (because I’m handy like that now) and they had a blast personalizing them with magic markers and decorating them with blankets and pillows.

It occured to me that if you give a kid a box, some scissors and some time, they might grow up to be the kind of people who assemble their own office chairs. Without any fuss.