Oh boy, this is a dream come true for a certain 16 year old in my house. The Rubik's Cube National Championships held this weekend at MIT. For the past 3 years he has had a large obsession with the "cube". He learned how to solve the 3x3 by watching a youtube video one second at a time over and over again until he could do it - and do it quickly. He soon moved on to the 4x4 and had been given vast array of all things Rubik every Christmas.
We brought him both Saturday and Sunday. The auditorium was hushed and cool and relaxing. No one ever spoke loudly. No one shouted or yelled or cheered. All that could be heard was the quiet click-twist-click-twist motion of both the competitors and the audience members who kept their hands in motion with their own cubes. The "rounds" were subdued and a quiet call was made for each group to begin.
It was oddly meditative. I kept checking on Carter thinking..."you like this?"..."ok, you love this!" Such a grin on his face. The holy grail for Rubik's fans aficionados. There were many categories of competitions...pyraminx, 3x3, 4x4, 5x5, 6x6, 7x7, blindfolded and one-handed. Is it wrong to admit I brought my book and read for a while? No one cared. The focus was entirely on the stage.
This was in the lobby. This is what a $1,000 worth of Rubix Cubes look like. Some of the kids were in middle school or younger and they had their collections spread out and just spun the colors to their hearts' content. There were vendors selling the big daddy cubes and "Lubix Cube"...something to make it spin faster. The host told the audience at one point that they were going to try to move things along on Sunday afternoon because "people had planes to catch". Of course they did ; )
This was a National Championship after all. An auditorium full of folks a lot smarter than me! But not better, right? Got some good mom points today. Lucky for us, we were just a short ride from home.
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