Me and Gravity

My foray into unfortunate experiences with gravity did not end with my swan dive off of my bed (see "Learning to Fly" post). Unfortunately for some of us (ok...me) the idea of one failure doesn't really transfer to other situations as well as it probably should. The thoughts of wanting to soar free and fly never actually left me, in spite of the whole Peter Pan 'incident'.

At eight years old, (four years is a l-o-n-g time at that age and things are easy to forget) I was a swing fanatic - absolutely crazy about it. The wind in your face and blowing your hair, that split second of free-fall when you are dropping, and then at the highest point of swinging forward - you jump out. Leaving the security of the swing, of being attached to anything, free to glide through the air - fantastic!

Swings were my favorite thing on the playground and we were really good friends, or so I thought...

The only thing that rivaled jumping from the swing was to get it going as high as possible and then holding on tight, and leaning all the way back in the swing and letting the world turn up-side-down. Ahhh - watching the world swish by, feeling my hair flow down (I should mention here that I had really long hair at the time). It was wonderful, the freedom, the fun, nothing was so wondrously relaxing and deliciously liberating, perfection...

until...

The chain on one side of the swing breaks, while you are up-side-down, eight feet in the air, and...
you fall
straight
down
on your
head
in gravel...

I ripped an entire chunk of hair out of the top of my head, like a reverse mohawk. I looked like I had been scalped, badly, with a stripe down the center of my head, totally bare and bleeding profusly...
I whimpered my way, slightly dazed and definitely shook up, to the school nurse - who had to fight between sympathy and laughter - as she wiped at my tears and the blood that stained my face with a clean towel. I tried desperately not to cry as she picked gravel out of the top of my head.

And if that was not enough - then the hair started to grow back...spikey, short, and standing STRAIGHT up for the the next two months...

Oh yeah, I was stunning.