Our swim team mascot is the whale, so I wanted to buy one for all the girls on the team to sign. But I couldn't find one, despite checking Walmart, Target, and every other store that sold inflatable pool supplies. A few weeks ago, my mom was online shopping for some heat winner prizes for an upcoming swim meet on Oriental Trading when she found a blow-up, six foot long whale. Remembering my complaints about not being able to find one, she bought it.
I found it lying deflated on the floor a few days later (last Wednesday). I was so excited, but I couldn't blow it up. It was way too big and I didn't have enough air. My mom tried, and so did my dad but no one could blow the whale up. We hooked it up to the pump that puts air into the tires of the car, but even that didn't work.
When I came home from school that day, Sheila was all blown up. I still have no idea how, but it happened at some point. That night everyone on the swim team came over and signed it. We gave her tattoos, eyelashes, and wrote inspirational quotes on her. We wanted to bring her to Sectionals, but she was too big to fit in the spectator area. So instead Sheila was confined to the Michael living room. My parents brought her to Sectionals anyway, and threw her in the pool from the balcony when we jumped in the pool after the meet was over. It took us awhile, but we finally got her in the car and back to our house.
On Sunday afternoon Sheila was brought to school and taped on top of the elevator. Apparently it took an hour, but she has been sitting there ever since. And that is the intriguing back story to Sheila the whale.
Sheila looks adorable in her current perch atop the elevator! Thank you for sharing her story. I especially love the way you described Sheila at the beginning of your post.
ReplyDeleteThe swim team has been doing so wonderfully all season, and I know you will be amazing at State tomorrow! Good luck! :)
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ReplyDeleteCute story! I just have one question, where did the name Sheila come from? Anyway, good luck at state, go kick some booty :)
ReplyDeleteThe name Sheila doesn't really have any specific meaning; we tried to think up creative names for the whale but we couldn't think of any cute ones that started with "W." So, we came up with the name Sheila out of the blue.
DeleteI remember when Sheila was brought down; I was simultaneously entertained, interested, and horrified. She's huuuuge, so I can understand how it might have been hard to fit in the spectator area.
ReplyDeleteThat is a really cool story, I had been wondering about that whale! I also commend the swim team for being (I think) the only Uni sports team to actually have a mascot, everyone else just gets lumped under the Uni High Illineks- which no one uses (for good reason) and most people don't even know what it is. Anyway, it's awesome that you found a 6foot long whale and that you all signed it. I hope you had an awesome swim season :)
ReplyDeleteI love that whale. She adds a lot of personality to the first floor hallway. Did you ever figure out the mystery of how she got blown up?
ReplyDeleteI never figured out how she got blown up! My best guess is that my mom somehow used something like a bike pump or a basketball pump, because I hope she didn't have to blow it up herself.
DeleteWhere did the name sheila come from? Because it's not a typical name. Did it come with the whale? Because there are some companies that do that. I buy things and when I go to name it I notice it already has a name. ANYWAYS. I hope Sheila can come back soon. The dust up near the top of the elevator even left a spot for her:)
ReplyDeleteI really liked the whale and it added so much spunk to the hallway! I was very sad when I saw someone take it down in the morning, I kind of started protesting but they weren't really phased. Oh well. I liked this post, and I think that this kind of joke thing really talks a lot about sports teams and how much fun they have over little things.
ReplyDeleteThe whale was such a cute idea! I'm surprised that it was so hard to find. Who named her Sheila?
ReplyDeleteI was wondering where that whale had come from, because it seemed to just appear at school a couple days after sectionals. That whale was so big, I'm not surprised you couldn't fit it in the spectator area, but it's cool that you were still able to bring it to sectionals in the end.
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