Monday, March 17, 2008

Spelling

As a former competition level speller, there are few things I appreciate more than some good spelling. I dream of the day I walk into a room and get challenged to an impromptu bee. I'm pretty confident that I'll win most battles and would only be served only by one of the kids that went to the big leagues...I'm talking Scripps-level spellers.

Today I went to get my international drivers' license. The AAA forms required me to provide various pieces of information about my life, to include city and state of birth...which I abbreviated (KY). As the lady begins transcribing my form onto the official driver's license, I noticed that she paused when it came time to fill in the state. Next thing I know, she's searching through the road map stand until she finds the Kentucky/Tennessee map. She studies the cover of the map, then presses on with filling out the form. Considering she's a clerk in a travel agency, you'd think she'd written the word Kentucky before...I mean, someone from Hawaii has to visit Kentucky at some point. It wasn't the smoothest of moves...seemed pretty obvious to me. She probably had no idea she had a competitive speller standing in front of her. I guess I should've started freestyling...throw out a couple of words from the National Bee.

4 comments:

Jon said...

Consider the gauntlet thrown down. I was two for two in seventh grade, won both the spelling and geography bees. My greatest achievement.

Noon tomorrow, at the old mill. It's on.

Strap said...

better watch out, else you get served.

Unknown said...

why are you getting an international drivers licence? And what makes a person a champion speller? Other than practicing spelling random words all day, are there other methods to train yourself? I am personally a terrible speller, there are probably many misspelled words in the this response.

Strap said...

for my upcoming trip...they're giving me a car.

many ways to train up on spelling...reading, dictionaries...dictionary.com's word of the day...pick-up bees.