The One on Saw Horses

So this is my favorite handstand picture to date.

It wasn't planned. The "props" weren't positioned perfectly by an art director. Shaina and I were just wandering outside our friend's house (in South Dakota during that big road trip), and she had the brilliant idea of me doing a handstand on saw horses.

At first I replied, "No way! I'll fall and get hurt. Mom and Dad will be mad!" I know them well enough to know they would be upset to have to drive me to an emergency room in The Middle of Nowhere, South Dakota.

But Shaina... you see... she lives vicariously through me. Much to her dismay, she wasn't a gymnast. She got the artistic (she can DRAW! WELL!) gene. I got the gymnast gene, I guess. She was always like, "Do an aerial! Do a back-handspring! Do a back tuck! Do a handstand three feet off the ground on these very un-sturdy, rusty, non-sanded saw horses!" And I complied.

So along with this being my favorite photo, it also ranks as Numero Uno on the "Scared Out of My Mind" Handstand List. :D

I stood on the saw horses in a straddle (legs apart), with my hands in front of me. I pressed my legs up slowly, and to my surprise... I was able to hold it there: straight and not fall over. I mean, I usually am straight and don't fall over. But I guess the only reason I was surprised was because I was three feet off the ground and balancing on two pieces of 2x4. Must admit, while I was up there, I was thinking, "Gosh, this is pretty darn cool."

So up in that handstand I said, "Shaina, did you get it yet?" And she replied, "YES!! And it's perfect!" I pressed back down to straddle and heaved a big sigh of relief. I seriously thought I was going to have to flip over the side. No idea I'd actually come down to my feet like I had wanted. Phew.

I shook off the butterflies, and we went back inside the house. Then we were back on the road... to visit the coolest place on earth... (another handstand photo to follow).

The One at Big Lake

This was probably the 3rd scariest handstand I've ever done (I know you're sitting at the edges of your computer chairs waiting for the 1st and 2nd). And the fact that I have some handstands ranked as "scariest" is just downright... well, you know... scary.

So... we were driving from Colorado to Minnesota... I'm sure it was to visit family, as my mother grew up just west of the Cities. (And for all those non-Minnesotan readers... "the Cities" refers to Minneapolis-St. Paul. Avoid looking like a dork in front of a Minnesotan and just say "the Cities." You'll probably impress the beer right out of 'em.)

Moving on...

So we arrived in Big Lake, Minnesota. My grandmother grew up on this lake. My Great Aunt Sue still lives in the house, and this is their dock. I've spent many a summer hanging out here with family and friends... catching little fish and throwing them back. Swinging on the rope swing into the lake. (Well, *I* didn't swing into the lake, but you know... my brother and the older, braver kids did.)

We thought it would be really cool to get a photo of me on this dock. All was fun and games until I walked over there and realized that it's a lot smaller when you're getting ready to stand on your hands, and the thought of *if* I fell, I'd be wet... and probably injured and humiliated. But hey, we'd have it all on camera for your viewing pleasure! Tee hee hee.

Too bad for you (lucky for me), you do *not* get to see me sopping wet, crying and crawling out of the water. I've never fallen out of a handstand, after 12 years of prolonged handstand holding (okay, there was that ONE time in my friend's living room, but really... when you have two toddlers running toward you and parents screaming that you're going to fall onto their VCR, you'd fall too! And that VCR... very unforgiving. I'm still claiming that I did not *actually* fall. I was walking on my hands, and I ran into their entertainment center. I don't have eyes on my feet, you know!

Anywho, what you *do* get to see is a pretty awesome handstand that even shows a smidgen of a calf muscle on my left leg. I wasn't blessed with muscles in the leg area. Arm muscles? Now, those... you'd be surprised at the guns on this petite frame. But legs? Notsomuch. So this picture boosts my self-esteem like I just won the Olympics!