May, Day 10'r11: Falling for You

I posted Quick Takes yesterday, so I'm counting that as my post for May 10...and I don't like the May 11th prompt, so I'm throwing it out and using the prompt for May 10th on May 11th. :) (Yeah, I like making up my own rules.)

The prompt for May 10 is to "spill" about my most embarrassing moment(s). I can't really think of a particular embarrassing moment...well, I can think of a humiliating moment, but it is really more sad than funny...so I will instead share a sort of vague "collection" of embarrassing moments.

I used to fall a lot. I was pretty much known for it. I'm pretty sure I used to fall every single day when I was a kid (okay, and maybe after that, too), and often more than once a day. Not exaggerating. If all my falls had been caught on tape, I am sure I would have no trouble filling up an entire episode (or two) of America's Funniest Home Videos with them. I seriously could be standing in the middle of a room not moving and just fall over. I console myself knowing I've brought a lot of laughter to others in this way....

I totally feel his pain....

I remember being a 'tween and falling outside the door of Taco Bell where my friends and I had gone to celebrate our February birthdays. And every single time I went roller skating in my life I left on the manager's crutches...I even remember crawling off the rink once. If you think falling hurts, try falling on a pair of roller skates (and I mean landing on them).

I used to fall going up the stairs at my junior high school (thank God I don't remember ever falling down them). And there was the time I was marching along with the junior high marching band, practicing outside the school for an upcoming parade, and I fell with my big ol' tenor saxophone and scarred my knee. I got back up pretty quickly, though, so I'm not sure the band teacher even noticed. Everyone behind me did, though.

I broke my tailbone a couple of times - once falling in the hallway in 4th grade and landing on a door stopper, and once in gym class.

One time I went with my church youth group to Hocking Hills (a national park in the hilly part of Ohio), and while we were hiking I tripped over some large tree roots and sprained my ankle there at the top of a small mountain from which we still had to hike down. And if that wasn't bad enough, not too much farther on there was a fallen tree and somehow while I was trying to get over it all crippled, I came down really hard on my bad ankle and double sprained it, even tearing a bunch of ligaments. That was maybe in June...and in August I fell on the sidewalk after I had come down the steps in front of my great-grandparents' house and sprained the other ankle. I started school that year with two aircasts. Yep, I was one of the popular kids. ;)

In college I had to give a speech in class one day, and we were supposed to dress up for it. So there I was in a navy blue skirt suit...and it was raining...and I was in the parking lot on my way to class...and I have no idea what happened, but I distinctly remember flying through the air and thinking how bad it was going to hurt when I hit the ground and slid several feet (it did hurt, but not as bad as I thought).

At the same college, I drove a big van full of students to Branson one December, and we stopped at a gas station along the highway before we got there. Outside were these gorgeous picnic tables made out of polished tree stumps, and as I was admiring them I completely missed a step down on the concrete and again went sailing through the air, ending my flight when I hit my head directly on one of those beautiful stumps. I had to go get stitches while everyone else went on to Silver Dollar City. I ended up with stitches above my eye, a huge goose egg on my forehead, and the next day both my eyes were black. I was quite a sight and had sore eyes! (Don't worry, I shook my own head pitifully at that joke.)

It's 3 in the morning and I can't think of a good way to end this so...that's it. I fall. A lot (though, I'm proud to say, not nearly as often as I used to).