Oh, man — I’m old.
So, yesterday I was at the school picking up my daughter and husband, and had to kill a little time before we went home. So I took my daughter out to the playground, where a second-grader was doing a cherry-drop off of the bars.
Only her cherry-drop wasn’t what I’d always thought of as a cherry-drop (which is when you hang from your knees, swing until you get high enough, then flip off.) So I showed her that, then a few other things that I hadn’t done in twenty years.
And completely amazed myself that I could do them. Amazed her, too. So I showed her how to do them, and she picked it up fast.
Her parents will probably kill me when she slips for the first time and ends up cracking her knees coming out of a death drop, but she’s going to be the queen of the playground for a little while.
But me … well, I was awesome for about two hours. First were the blisters (oh, how I remember those from elementary school. Every autumn, I had blisters until the calluses hardened my palms into steel. Now, my weenie hands are only good for typing.)
And my Achilles’ tendon is sore. Ouch ouch. I landed way too hard on a couple of those dismounts.
But worst are the backs of my knees. I bruise easily, but you should see the suckers behind my knees. It’s like someone whacked me with a baseball bat. And my back muscles are tight.
So I’m hobbling around and thinking, why oh why?
Yesterday, I was ten again. Today, I’m getting a good look at seventy.
Why, oh why?
I’m sure I’m supposed to be all sympathetic and stuff…
…
and I will be, I’m sure…
…
the moment I finish laughing my head off.
I know it’s not nice, but I have to laugh. LOL This sounds so much like something I would do…and end up paying for and thinking…”When did I get old?”
Pull out the rocking chair, and I’ll come visit with the hot water bottle.
A little ibuprofen, a hot shower, a long walk to tomorrow and you’ll be feeling 50!
Well, you were having fun while you were feeling 10 again, weren’t you?
Hey, at least you could still do ‘em! I’ve been known to land on my head. I was playing with my Godson when he was about 4 yrs old and I fell off the bed and landed on the back of my neck. I couldn’t move for about a minute and scared the crap out of myself thinking I had paralyzed myself. I would have been 30 years old. Haven’t tried anything from childhood since!
CindyS
Sometimes you just have to do those things to stay connected with your younger self, even if your older self pays.
At least, that’s what I think.
My sympathies on your current pain.
Gennita, the visual you just gave me… priceless! Thank you for the laugh, much needed.
Oh Meljean, bless your heart.
I had a similar lesson not to long ago. There was a song that my daughter was trying to learn a dance move to. The lyrics call for the dancers to go “low,low low,low”. Jessica could not for the life of her get her hips to circle instead of shake. So out comes the bellydance teacher in Mom and myself. First we showed her how to use her hips to make circles around her feet. This caused me no pain then or later. The pain came from demonstrating over and over how to circle your hips while slowly sinking to the floor. For a while it was like being 21 and back in the club. I remembered being slim and feeling sexy while I was dancing.
Jessica is now able to boogie up a storm. I, on the other hand, was sore for over a week. No bruises but sitting and standing was a chore. It reminded me of being very pregnant. You know, rocking to get the momentum gathered to get up and leaning back at the knees to catch the back of the sofa with one arm so you can hold your weight and gradually ease down.
You have all my sympathy for your suffering. I will admit to a grin while reading. I’m very impressed with your monkey bar talent. I always wore dresses so that the teachers wouldn’t make me play. They always let me take my library book out and read.
I was 70 when I was 10, and I would have been standing there, wringing my hands and screaming at you to get down before you broke your neck, leaving you paraplegic and a burden on your poor parents.
Now I have regressed to 12, which is muchly much funner when one is chronologically 34.
The good news is that I’m mostly all right again, except for the huge bruises still on the backs of my knees. I won’t be doing that again anytime soon.
Poor Meljean *smothered snicker*
*ahem*
By the way, Kerry… I love you comment
love it, love it, love it!
It is the season for sweaters. You need to use a sweater behind your knees next time. I know you and there will be a next time. The opportunity will come again and you will try to be young. Just remember the sweater. It will still hurt later but not quite so much. That is what I did when I showed my girls separately how it was done.
They are pretty bad…dork