Survivor? No way.

A couple of months ago, I suggested to a mom friend that we try out a new bounce house place. I thought it would be a great way to spend a day. Let the kids run, jump, bounce all of their energy out and then take a nice long nap. I went to try a new bounce place. And as usual, my son showed no interest in the actual activity that I wanted to take him to. He was more interested in trying to escape a door. Luckily, they keep an employee there for that specific reason.

At one point, I got my son to go into one of the bounce houses. Of course it wasn't the little toddler one that he showed any interest in, it was the bigger one. No harm done, right? I've never been to a bounce place...I really didn't understand how high the things go. You must wear socks in these places, no shoes are allowed. They even have little rungs for you to climb on to. I started to climb. I also had my purse and camera with me because of course I wanted to capture the day-our first bounce house experience. And my purse is loaded with tons of junk. I think I could lift my purse up and down and get the equivalent to a weight-lifting workout. After we climbed (I think I was assisting my son) the little rungs, he decided he wanted to go back. And when I turned around to go back, I realized that the little rungs only are on the one side. The other side does not have the rungs because you are supposed to keep climbing each wall. It was too high and too slippery for me to go back. And the next wall to climb was a huge wall. There was no way I was going to be able to carry my son, my purse, and the camera up a huge wall. I didn't know where my friend was because her son had decided to run all over the place. I finally flagged her down and she grabbed my camera and purse for me. And then I looked at her and my son, and she took my son as well. So up I climbed with all of the other big kids who looked at my funnily...and I finally got to the top and had to slide down this huge slide with a little block in the middle that keeps you from flying off of the slide. I slid and when I got to the bottom I realized that my elbow was burning. When I looked, I saw that I had lost some skin. And it burned like a rug burn might. So for weeks, I kept a band aid over my elbow hoping that it would heal and my skin would grow back. It finally did. But I discovered how wimpy I am.

And as I watched the Survivor finale, they interviewed one of the contestants who was a former pop singer and the host talked about how she had survived the elements and it surprised him how well she did outdoors. And I realized that I am really a wimp because I couldn't survive an indoor, bounce house. If I ever get my courage up, I'll at least wear long sleeves.