I got an Honorable Mention

So, my whole life whenever my mom sees some random invention that makes life easier she always says "now, why didn't I think of that?"

Well tonight I am sitting in my recliner (of course) looking at the One Step Ahead catalog that came in the mail today and I'll be darned if I don't see the Snack & Play Travel Tray. Ummmmm nice try, One Step Ahead. I ALREADY thought of that! I came up with that idea for Invention Convention in 6th grade! Maybe I didn't have time in 6th grade between school and about 35 hours per week of gymnastics practice to get the patent, but I did have the idea first.

You might be asking yourself what the heck is Invention Convention? Well, I'll tell you. It's some sort of science fair type event where elementary school children try to create new inventions and learn about the patent process.

And in case it's not totally obvious to anyone that knows me, I am SO not a science/math person. I have no earthly idea what I was doing entering a science fair type event. Props to my mother for just trying to engage me in any after-school activities seeing as how every waking minute of my life at that time was spent at school or gymnastics OR in the car for 3 hours each day to and from gymnastics! So in the maybe 2 seconds that I wasn't at practice or on my way to or from practice, I came up with this super fabulous idea. Every night after practice I ate my dinner (usually a Mrs. Winners chicken leg, biscuit) in the car on the way home. I could invent a tray to hook onto the back of that passenger seat that would flip down and I could eat my dinner. Yes, I see now how it seems exactly like the flip down trays on airplanes. Like I said, I travelled A LOT and lacked in creativity.

But what I lacked in creativity, I made up for in design. Oh wait. That's the complete opposite of the truth. My design was horrible too. Actually worse than the idea itself. I'm pretty sure I had my dad cut the side out of a cardboard box and then I somehow fastened twisted rods of aluminum foil into these hooks that would hook this tray onto the back of the front passenger seat. I am literally laughing so hard that I am crying right now just thinking of the design! I can't even do it justice in writing. Why oh why do I not have a picture of it somewhere? Oh my gosh, I'm going to go duplicate it right now and attach a picture.

The best part? My ever so creative name. The Car Eating Tray. My pride was shattered when Josh Wilson made fun of me and said it sounded as if the car was actually eating the tray. Oh snap. The name sucked too.

I got an honorable mention.