Maybe not with the greatest of ease, but there was definitely flying...

And I definitely felt daring.

Circus Class #2 certainly brought some excitement. I will admit after the first class I was epically sore from Thursday - Tuesday. Wednesday I was feeling better, but after an hour and a half with Carin at the Rollerdome, my back and feet were aching again. I was a little nervous for Thursday to roll around again, and I won't say I didn't consider for a moment or two if this was something I should keep doing, but in the end I was just too excited at the possibility of trying everything. I mean, they practically turn you loose in a circus! The glee and amazement far outweigh the embarrassment at not being able to do most of it, or at least not well. :)

And class #2 brought the "event" which had inspired me to sign up for the class in the first place.

Can I back up one more time to say that while they mentioned trapeze in the course description, I still kept thinking it was something we built up to. I thought there would be instruction, and ground practice, and but I guess I've been blown away by all of the things we've done so far, and a bit incredulous that someone is "letting" me try such things. Do they have me confused with someone else? Is this a "9-1-1 call waiting to happen?", to borrow a phrase from my mother?

So far, so good :)

Bucket List Item #87, Fly on a Trapeze



Check!


We used a trapeze they call "low casting", but it's only low compared to the "flying trapeze" at the top of the tent. I thought it was PLENTY high :) I climbed up the side of the shaky metal platform, which must be 10-15 feet off the floor, had a few flashbacks to the sky diving incident, and then I just went for it! The first few times I just swung forward once and dropped, I was scared of whacking my back/legs on the platform on the back swing. To avoid this you need to tuck at the right time, and I think we've already discussed the state of my stomach muscles :) I was even more nervous after some of the more experienced girls whacked the stand fairly hard, but I slowly built up to it, and my coach promised to spot my legs.



WHEEEEEEE!




This was just wild. I didn't do any tricks or turns or have a partner across the way catch me (some girls in the class did though!), but man did I feel giddy and proud. I whacked my left buttcheek on the stand once, and on my first landing I may have eaten a little of the mat, but I JUST FLEW ON A TRAPEZE. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE.

We also did some tricks with a small trampoline, running towards it and doing Russian's, twists, and even some flips! I didn't try the full out flips in the air (I have this pesky fear of breaking my neck), but I did flip off the trampoline and over a pyramid mat, that was totally crazy and felt a little wild. It was also really tiring, and I can feel it in my legs today.

Our third activity of the night was juggling, which was a nice respite from all the very physical activity thus far. And, in a strange twist of fate, I can juggle! I'm not ready for knives or flaming torches yet, but I have scarves down and I'm not terrible at three bean bags. This was clearly karma, the two other skinny minny bendy girls in my group (who are very nice actually, but I have to hate them a little out of jealousy) who had done everything else so well, just could NOT juggle at all. A little success felt very nice!

The end of class conditioning was brutal again, 5 weird push ups with lingering slow movements, then 300 crunches. THREE HUNDRED. I feel like it should be written in blood like the movie title, it's such a brutal thought. I did as many as I could, and managed to keep from puking, so I consider the evening a success.


In case you are wondering, yes, I do believe that Hell has frozen over. I'm exercising...on purpose...and enjoying it.