it's always something!

I have used my Christensen butt/thighs to bring to pass much good in my life. Not the least of which is becoming the all-time Chinese jumprope and "bars" champ at George S. Patton Elementary School in Ft. Ord California. *Which is why I didn't get beat up for wearing the Strawberry Shortcake knicker set my Aunt Chris made me, or the ribboned barrettes, complete with dangling star-ish shaped beads.

I jumped from ankles to ears when that rubberband rope (which I constructed), was pulled from my backpack. Though many a transient army brat tried, I was undefeatable. And, when I got bored with my Asian pastime I moved on to "the bars". Utah doesn't have bars like California has bars. We had rows of bars parallel to eachother about 5 feet apart and rising about 4 feet off the ground. We'd face eachother and gossip while we did our genie drops and various other death-defying tomfoolery. I could do anything you asked, and I did. Genie drops were a drop in the bucket. Within a couple of weeks of "the bars", I was doing everything with no hands. I shudder to think.

I got this picture from an ABC News article detailing the bacteria found on playground equipment across America. Really? Why are kids obese? Heaven forbid they get germs on their hands.

Once, while waiting for my brainiac brother to conference with his teacher (sans parents even, show-off), I decided to try the bars at the kindergarten playground on for size. Too small. Guess how I found out. Oh, the simple warm-up of a genie drop turned into a minor concussion that I was much too proud to tell anyone about. Imagine the full force of your body (starting in sitting position), being shoved back, in order to swing ones legs beneath oneself and land upright, hitting the ground at the base of the skull on sand covered asphalt. It was yummy. Maybe the concussion wasn't minor.

I wasn't dropped on my head as a baby. I was genie dropped at age 7.