Great Balls of Fire!

I can't really explain it but I've been feeling kinda good the last day or so. It might have to do with the fact that I've become comfortable in doing my own thing, or that I gave a surpisingly succesful shiur the other day, or that I just had a really good jelly doughnut. It doesn't really matter, the fact is things are looking up.
I did witness one of the funniest things I've ever seen in the dorms the other day. I walked into one of the rooms just looking for one of the guys, and there I beheld two boy in there underware sitting on the floor, legs spread apart about ten feet across from each other playing a very interesting game. The game invovled a tennis ball and the oponent trying to drop a rainbow shot into the others baysim (a.ka., ding-dongs, shmeckels, pop rocks, hangers, the boys, the twins, nadsicles or just plain testicles- feel free to post more names....I probably will). One boy would sit with his arms behind his back and amazingly wouldn't flinch as the other boy would lob the tennis ball into the air, hoping to hit the family jewels. At first they missed nearly every time, though there were some close calls. Then finally one of the boys gracefully launched the ball through the air and hit the mark with an uncomfortable sounding "pop". The other boy laughed for a second, then his eyes rolled up into his head, and he keeled over, leaving me and the other two boys watching convulsing in laughter. Now as a madrich, should I have stopped this game in some way? HELL NO! If there's one thing I've learned in life it's that a guy getting hit in the crotch is ALWAYS funny...no matter what. Soccer ball hits the goaly in the little gentleman turning them into smurfs=funny. A guys riding a horse and gets thrown into the air, landing harshly on his saddle and crushing his little buddies=funny. An old lady is getting mugged and swings her purse into her attackers jimmies=funny. Kevin McCallister shoots a beeby into Marv's grenades=funny. I dare you to come up with a scenario involving a mans
hobbly-wobblies getting hit that isn't funny. So no, I wasn't going to stop this for ANY REASON. The boys would just have to learn their lesson themsevles.....I know I did..... (que the Wayne's World flachback "didlyoo, didlyoo, diddlyoo")
It was the spring of 2000. I was a senior in high school. The Mets were reminding Queens what exciting baseball was like. Bon Jovi was making their big come back with "It's My Life", and Russel Crowe was becoming an international star with "Gladiator". We were careless at this point in our lives, having secured our gradution from HAFTR, and bleekly looking forward to our advancements towards adulthood. One shabbos my friend Josh and I went to our buddy's Elan. His dad wasn't home and it was just the three of us. Fun things happened, but I will fast forward to the following evening when we elected to stay in and play an interesting game, rather than go to shul. We were bored and noticed a bowl of fruit on the table. I don't know whose idea it was or how it came to pass but after first rolling the oranges and applres across the floor into each others crotchland we eventually decided to try to pitch the the fruit at each other. But instead of using a plate to decide what was a strike we just used each others gonads. We stood twently feet away and attempted to "lightly" pitch oranges, apples and peaches into our yankee doodles. No logic. No intelligence. No jock strap. We just did it till we could stand no more. I know I had a couple of strike outs and I clearly remember Josh landing a wicked changeup right in the heart of the strike zone. We knew we were being stupid at the time, and still enjoyed ourselves. Later, ice packs in place, we just laughed about our foolishness. It was the most enjoyable painful moment of my life.

So perhaps all young men have a tendency to throw objects at each others ping-pongs at some point or another. Maybe the ensuing pain (And trust me ladies it is remarkably painful) is a sort of passage towards manhood. Perhaps it's just a coming of age. Yes it's idiocy, but it makes for a good blog. And with that I wish you all a good shabbos!!!