in my mind, i have memories...i remember things that were meant to be

So, my dad took over the remote control earlier this afternoon, and tonight he was watching America's Funniest Home Videos. One of the top 3 videos in the running to win the grand prize was one of this kid that was like, falling halfway out of a tree, and his pants were falling down showing his bare butt. It made me smile because it reminded me of last September (as in September from a year ago, as opposed to last month). Things were so much simpler last September.

It made me think of last September, because of an incident that happened that was similar to the video.

My cousin T is a September baby. He had his 18th birthday last year. My aunt wanted to make it special, so she rented a moon bounce. But, this was no ordinary moon bounce. It was one of those obstacle course ones. You started out by going through a hole in the netting. Then you would run (bounce/crawl/etc) to the back of the moon bounce. I think there were some obstacles to like hop over or go under or something. Anyway, then you would walk/run/crawl across the back part of the moon bounce going through some more obstacles. After that, you would make your way up the other side to the front again. Once at the front, you had to climb up this ladder made of these really thin bars with barely any room for foot hold or even for your fingers to hold onto. Once you made it up to the top, you went down the slide, and it was over.

Ok, so now I've explained the concept of this particular moon bounce to you...it seems simple enough, and it might have been. The only problem is, we packed way more people than should be humanly possible in it. We started out with just a few of us...me, my aunt, my uncle, and 3 of my cousins. When T and his friends realized we were in it, they rushed outside and piled in. That added about 6 or 7 more people. Things went ok until we got to the ladder. My aunt was first in, and she made it out fine. The rest of us weren't so lucky. I kept trying to go up the ladder and falling. My uncle was right behind me. I ended up sitting on one of T's friends. My cousin J ended up getting caught in the netting. She freaked and went back around the other way to get out. People were going around us and making it up, but I just couldn't get there. Finally, after a bazillion attempts, I start going up it. I was wearing jeans, and I could feel them slipping. I didn't care. I grabbed them and continued on. I had finally gotten my second wind and strength, and I was well on my way. Too bad for my uncle. He was climbing up right behind me, and he saw a side of me he hasn't ever seen before...or at least hasn't seen since I've been out of diapers. But I kept trucking. I finally made it to the top, stood there readjusting my jeans, and slid down. My other uncle had caught it all on tape. I fear this video footage will show up at my wedding.

So, to recap, I got crushed and almost suffocated and died in a moon bounce. I sat on one of my cousin's friends more than once, and I mooned my uncle and everyone else in line behind him. Should have been embarrassing. Should have mortified me. But it didn't. It energized me. It made me laugh because it was fun...despite the embarrassment, it was fun. I was laughing with my aunts and uncles. My cousin and his friends were laughing with us. We were bonding as a family and having a good time without worrying about anything. And, we really needed that because 5 months before, we had spent time in mourning the death of my uncle together, and we were still getting over that. Somehow, me mooning everyone helped give us a break from reality.

Originally posted sometime in 2009.