Heels Over Head

I just managed to tip my office chair (a mighty feat, I know!)  As my legs flew over my head, I experienced several wonderful flashbacks of other times my legs flew over my head in that second before the impact, watching them flying into my view as unexpected and foreign as someone else's legs, and thinking: "Oh crap, this is going to hurt."  If you've never experienced it, trust me, the legs reach your view before your back hits anything of interest.   (Note: This is not an endorsement to find out personally.  Between these stories, a few more, and throw in the few whiplash stories I have, there's a reason my chiro loves me.  But, that being said, it's pretty cool to see your legs fly as you fall.)

And these are (some of) my heels over head memories:  Last week, at the cottage on a sunny day, a slight breeze lifting the humidity from the lake, jumping up and down on an inflatable device we believed might be a trampoline, toppling, spotting my legs over me, realizing I was going down, blocking my nose seconds before the impact in the water, cool marks on my back for days to prove my fall.

An older memory, in university, a beautiful winter night.  An eclipse of the moon, and my now sister-in-law and I are outside to witness its dark vanishing.  Me deciding the blanket of snow on the ground looked soft and inviting, letting myself fall onto it, underestimating distance as legs go flying up into view seconds before hitting very thin blanket of snow and mostly impacting rock and cold ground, catching breath as looking up to the eclipsing moon, fluffy snow shaken free from a nearby pine tree tumbling into my view (I suspect that was my friend's doing), going back into the house before hypothermia sets in.

Much younger, as a pre-teen on a play park merry-go-round, my brother spinning and spinning the sucker so we'd hold on, me sitting in the middle, my brother tickling me, making me jump up, that nasty little centrifugal force grabbing me, feeling the metal bar on my fingertips as I reach and miss, feeling the other metal bar hit the back of my legs, seeing (yup) my legs flying up seconds before I hit the sandy ground, a few metres from the merry-go-round.  That was pretty cool, actually.  And some kids were duplicating my stunt afterward, so I was rather flattered. 

So there you go.  I may not fall head over heels often, but I have definitely experienced heels over head.  And now I'm sore and nostalgic, all at once.  And I'm grace incarnate.  Good thing it's jeans day at work!