The Time I Yoga-Balled an Apple Store Employee

Back in the late 2000s, my teenage daughter and I went to a local mall one weekend to do some shopping. As usual, I insisted we drop into the Apple store before leaving.

The store itself was quite busy. There were people playing with nearly every item on display at the tables near the front of the store, and even more people hovering around those people to catch a glimpse of what they were doing.

Parents that wanted to placate their younger kids would drop them off at the short table near the back of the store. This table had iMacs that each hosted a different video game. And instead of chairs, there were yoga balls for kids to sit on. Even if the game was boring, kids could still be entertained by bouncing up and down on the yoga ball.

After slowly making our way to the back of the store, I saw that one of the iMacs at the short table had a Lego Indiana Jones video game. Since no kid was playing it, I sat down and checked it out. It was great.

But with my attention focused on the game, it became harder to sit on the yoga ball. After all, keeping your butt balanced on a yoga ball also requires attention, and it’s challenging to get into a game while simultaneously focusing on yoga ball balance. Then – quite suddenly – my butt hit the ground hard and the yoga ball flew upwards and clocked an Apple store employee in the side of the head before being caught by a grinning kid. I still vividly remember the thwack sound and the Apple store employee’s stunned expression as I looked around to see what happened.

Before I had a chance to get up and apologize, another Apple store employee brought me a chair and apologized for the inconvenience. I did manage to scramble together an awkward sentence that involved the word “sorry” but the yoga-balled Apple store employee was already out of earshot and talking to another customer.

Much to the horror of my daughter – who thought the yoga ball incident meant that it was time for us to leave the store and never return – I sat down on the chair and played more of the game. After all, it was a good game and my daughter was accustomed to parental embarrassment.

The following week, we returned to the same Apple store. However, I noticed that the yoga balls at the short table now had spandex seat covers on them, with the open end tied into a knot that rested on the floor. I sat down on one and moved around. The spandex seat cover made it very difficult to lose balance or accidentally slide off the ball. It was an easy and impressive solution.

Later that same year, we visited two other Apple stores, and each one had spandex covers over the yoga balls.

While I can’t be certain that my yoga ball incident was the driving force behind the addition of spandex covers on the yoga balls at each Apple store, I like to think that, at the very least, my butt had a part to play in it.