Cool Baboon

[la_rainette]

Dum dee dum dee dum. Silent auction went well, but we (the registrars) were still a little out of it on registration day (at an obscenely early time the next morning).

rainette: WOW, Sarah, look at you! You actually managed to put on MAKE-UP today?
Sarah: Nah. Didn't take it off last night.

Well, I had taken off mine, but I am not sure it was a very good move. Next time, I'll just tumble into bed as is in the off-hope that I look fabulous in the morning, too.

And today, Froglet insisted on going roller skating in our quiet dead-end street, so I put Tadpole onto her Big Girl Bike (with wee stabilizing wheels), helped Froglet into her skates, and figured, what the heck, I have rollerblades too, might as well go for it too.

Now, I can skate on ice - not very well, but adequately enough -, but rollerblading is a totally different thing. I mean, ice rinks are traditionally flat spaces with solid walls all around them; these characteristics are crucial for people who - like me - can go forward at a reasonable speed, but absolutely cannot brake. Not to save their lives. Not to save anyone else's life. I mean, I simply CANNOT brake. Yes, I have been told there is a brake on my rollerblades, I have even seen it. However. I CANNOT brake.

I have a friend who, to avoid looking ridiculous in public, skated only in the comfort of her own 2-bedroom apartment for a full year. It drove her downstairs neighbours bananas, but she enjoyed it immensely. Now, I don't really care if I look ridiculous, but I have to admit that the only way I can stop when needed is by sitting down on the street.

I have also learned an important fact today: the gravitational pull of any obstacle when rollerskating/cycling downhill with no brake in infinitely high. It is one of Murphy's Law's collaterals. Tadpole just went "eeeeeeep!" and cycled straight into a parked car; I narrowly avoided doing the same by sitting down on the street.

So. I am a cool mom who rollerblades with her kids. I am also, however, remarkably incompetent at it, which tonight makes me a cool mom with a black and blue bum.

I guess that I were part of the African wildlife, it would make me a baboon; would you pass the bananas and the peanuts, please? Also: Ow. Ow, ow, ouch and more. My bum and my dignity hurt a little. The girls, of course, thought I was hilarious and yelled for more. Huh. Kids.

Comments

[bookwench31.livejournal.com]

The girls, of course, thought I was hilarious and yelled for more. Huh. Kids.

Because falling down is comedy gold!

I try not to laugh when my friends fall down but invariably I fail. So while on the inside I am concerned and worried, on the outside I'm laughing it up so much that often I fall down while trying to help them.

*hugs* There's stuff that's great for bruises, and now as I go to tell you about it I have fogotten what it is called. *headsdesk* ARNICA! That's it. Arnica gel does wonders for bruises. I used to beat my hips black and blue because I refused to use the ladder in the pool and would always just push up on the side. My instructor always had the same problem and she's the one that gave me the stuff in the first place.

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

:D I know! I laugh, too. I laugh when I fall, I can't help it -- well, not when it hurts too much, but you know, sometimes the whole situation is just so funny. my mum is the same -- she once fell in a bus, straight to her knees with her head in some unknown woman's lap, and I got really worried when she wouldn't stand up, and it turned out she was laughing so hard she couldn't move. :D

ARNICA! Wait, I have arnica gel. I use it on the girls all the time! Thanks! (See, I wouldn't have thought of using it for myself, but of course it makes perfect sense).

[terrylj.livejournal.com]

I was 14, and at a Pizza Hut with a bunch of older guys I was trying to impress. I was leaning back in my chair, acting cool, and suddenly my chair went over backwards and my skirt went over my head.

I couldn't get up off the floor for five minutes, even after they disentangled me from the chair, because I was laughing too hard.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_skye_/]

HAHAHAHAHA!

[la-rainette.livejournal.com]

If I had wings, I wouldn't fall on my bum so often when skating. I could just fly away *is jealous*

[terrylj.livejournal.com]

Oh, the bruised bodies and dignity we take for our kids. :D

My preferred method of braking is to steer into something solid. I used to could brake with my old skates of the one-wheel-on-each-corner design, but for ice skating or roller-blading, I just can't seem to get the hang of it.

[pookerdoos.livejournal.com]

The little brakes they put on rollerblades are totally useless. I can't use them either, at least not without pitching forward and falling on my face like an idiot. I just used to slow down by angling my rollerblades outwards (or inwards) gently until they'd gone so far sideways that the wheels couldn't roll anymore. You can do it with only one foot, too. It takes some practice but it's not too hard. Skating up to stationary objects like houses, mail boxes and light posts helps too. ^^()