Unexpected in the Park

After work today, I didn’t quite feel like going home. Three days before a paycheck, in this kind of mood, I didn’t really have a lot options. Actually, I had three: Starbucks with my gift card, the library, and the park.
It’s a beautiful day, so I went for Starbucks and then the park.
I love writing in the park; it’s peaceful and stimulating. My writing was rather interrupted by this:

And a guy walking across it. (I didn’t take a picture of him; I figured that might be rude: “here, pose for my blog post!”) Obviously, I stopped and watched him. By then he was honest to God doing yoga poses and jumping from one foot to the other on a line suspended three and a half feet above the ground.
“That’s so cool!” I told him, when I thought I wouldn’t startle him into a fall. He asked if I would like to try it: I immediately agreed, though I did warn him I was dangerously uncoordinated.
He just laughed and helped me up.
I didn’t have any illusions this would end anyway but on my ass; in fact, I was actually thinking up how to explain the bruises.
“Don’t look at your feet,” he said, holding onto my hand. At first he had me just sit on the line; then I graduated to standing on my dominant foot, shaking out my other foot and the hand not clutching his for dear life. Then I was actually walking…not nearly as easily or as impressive as him…but I was still on my feet and on the line.
It’s hard to describe walking on a slack line, as he told me it was called. It’s kind of like a balance beam, only a balance beam doesn’t shake and snap beneath you. T told me this line wasn’t really set up for a beginner, the trees being far apart and quite a bit of slack on the line; if I was interested in taking this up, I’d need to start with trees closer together and a tighter line. Then he said I was doing very well.
Dad says T was biased because I was a cute girl holding his hand…
…but I never fell, so that is something. Actually, quite a big something for me. Five steps, ten minutes, no spills!
It was extremely fun.
Really fun.
I’ve got Amazon open right now to find out how much a good slack line is.
So, in the month of May I a) tried something new and b) meet a new person and c) possibly picked up a challenging hobby.
Despite my good luck today, I imagine that the bruises will come–even T fell off, quite spectacularly. He was doing one of those jumps and landed with his torso across the line with a resounding smack. When I looked up from my writing to ask if he was okay, he admitted that it was like getting hit with a baseball bat.
I’m still pricing slack lines, FYI.