Left Hand

For no particular reason, other than to prepare myself for the possibility of injuring my right hand and being unable to use it, I decided today to make it a goal to be able to do things left handed by the end of the year.  I'm starting out slowly with seemingly easy tasks and plan to work my way up to more complex tasks.  Step #1:  brush my teeth left handed.  This seems like it should be easy enough, but feels extremely awkward and difficult thus far.  I have no doubt that my 2 and 3 year old nieces brush their teeth with greater confidence and skill than I do with my left hand.  I estimate it shouldn't take longer than a month to master, although by that time I may need a trip to the dentist to get some fillings.  Maybe I'll do a little left handed hair combing as well for some additional practice.

From there I think I'll move on to throwing footballs and baseballs left handed.  I experimented with left handed throwing in high school and college and found it exceptionally difficult.  I'd say I threw like a girl, but I most girls throw more gracefully than I do lefty.  When I can throw an accurate fastball, I'll move on to the curve.  Of course, I can't throw a curve worth a damn righty, so any hopes of getting any movement opposite handed are pretty far fetched.  While in the sports milieu, I'll also see if I can serve a volleyball left handed, and maybe play tennis lefty.  I've been batting lefty for many years so I think playing tennis shouldn't be too hard to master.  Based on past experience, however, I think it may take longer than the remainder of the year to learn to throw. 

The final step will be doing some rudimentary writing and drawing.  I think that may be the fevered dream of a madman though.  I currently draw with all the skill of a trained chimp.  A poorly trained chimp at that, so writing legibly might be an unrealistic expectation.  I can always stick with typing if I have to.