When we were in junior high, I took theatre class with a kid named Amon Duncan. Amon was a pro that I'm sure went in to theatre to some degree. One of his greatest skills was the ability to fall - at will - as though his head had just been hit with a two-ton pipe. For whatever reason (probably the same reason that I found the Bribansi Brothers so fun) I was just fascinated by this. I watched every movement and within time, I was able to mimic his abilities passably. I ended up using that in a thankfully lost silent movie made with Jay and Chip.

Around this time, Jay and I would play this "game" in the courtyard at Seabrook Intermediate. As with most of what we did, it was more play-acting than competitive or challenging. Basically, we'd run up to a bench, pivot off of it and land flat on our backs. We called ourselves the Flying Bribansi Brothers. In our imaginary world, this was circus-worthy or gymnastical to some degree, but back in the real world it was two 11 year olds falling flat on their backs (when we did it right - our arms if we did it wrong and that hurt!).

I don't know why, but there is something fun about being able to fall down with drama and skill.

Eel's basement apartment is under a house with a very icy driveway. Over the past week I've learned on no less than three occasions that It's not as fun to dramatically fall down as it used to be.

Okay, actually, it is as fun.

I am just a lot less skilled.

And it hurts a lot more.