When I was little I went to nursery school all day while my parents were at work. For the most part I dont remember enjoying the place, but then I dont remember hating it that much either. My best friend there was named Brian. Around the time when I was 4 or so we got really into doing somersaults. The problem with this was that as soon as you put your head down on the grass, but before you could roll over and complete the somersault, anyone who saw you would rush over and sit on your head. So here and there on the playground, you'd see 4 year olds sitting on other 4 year olds heads while those with their heads being sat on were screaming in frustration. Sometimes you'd get lucky and roll before anyone sat on you, and the delight outweighed the risk. No one stopped doing somersaults... even when the sitters started pretending to fart.
It had been a long time since I'd shrieked in delight at something as simple as that. As an "adult" this just isnt something you get to do often enough. On Saturday I went with a friend to a party. We didnt know anyone and most of the crowd seemed a little into their own scene, but we talked to the host and at one point, without warning, he says to us, "Hey! Have you been to the paper room yet?" (The paper room? wtf is that?) He got all excited and bounded through the living room dragging us behind him. One of the bedrooms was filled with those big sheets of newsprint that you use when you're packing dishes and other fragile stuff. They were all wadded up in drifts and mounds like piles of raked leaves. He shoved us into the room, grabbed an armful of paper, and threw it into the air. We got the point immediately and started throwing paper everywhere, diving into piles and tackling anyone who got close enough to tackle. We must have been in there creating a blizzard of paper for 15 minutes straight and I was, in fact, shrieking with delight. We all tried to entice more people into the room but almost no one was interested. We got a lot of raised eyebrow looks, the kind where you know their internal monologue is going something like "Uh, no thanks, retard! As if!"
At first I thought it was sad that people would rather be too cool than have that much fun, but I went back in the paper room for a second go, and really how can you be bothered to be sad for the cool kids when youre having that much fun?
Posted by allison at May 11, 2004 11:31 PM