Get ready for a bunch of photos of my foot, and a story about my first trapeze injury in over 9 years of flying.
Picture what a lawn dart looks like when it's is spiraling at full speed towards the ground. Well, that's sort of what I looked like--feet first straight into the net. There are two ways you never want to land in the net--on your head and to a lesser extent, on your feet.
Ever since I took my uprise shoot out of lines to catch, I added an uprise to my warm up routine, just to keep myself comfortable getting into that position. Tonight, I lost focus or went into it with less energy than needed, and before I knew it, I was pealing off the bar and heading towards the net. I've pealed out of an uprise before, and it's never fun, but I've always been in lines when it's happened. The worst that ever happened was a little whiplash, but I never actually came off the bar. See for yourself--this is just a video of the TV screen in the shed that we use to watch replay.
In hindsight, all I needed to do to avoid injury was to tuck my feet up and go to my butt or back....but it all happened so quickly that all I did was try to hang on--which I could not do. After lying in the net for a few minutes hoping the pain would go away, I rolled towards the edge of the net and managed to climb down the ladder on my own. Someone brought me an ice pack and I sat by the fire with my foot elevated. At first it didn't hurt too bad, but then once the adrenaline wore off, it really started to hurt. Both feet/ankles hurt, but my left more than my right.
After sitting there for awhile, I realized I needed to get home. I managed to hobble to my car with a little help, and could drive because my right foot was not too bad. Once I got home, I took my sock off to see the real damage. Get ready for those nasty foot pictures because it was pretty bad. It started with these two huge lumps on the side, and by morning, the swelling had spread out and was just puffy all over.
It was hard for me to get too much help at home since Dave is isolated in our room with his Covid, but he did go up to Kathy's to borrow some crutches for me. It was pretty tough to move around those first few days. I missed work the next day, which was tough since I had an event that I would miss. Over the next few days, the swelling and bruising was pretty interesting.
I did go in for an X-ray the next day, but nothing was broken. George wants me to get an MRI, but I'm hesitant because it's an expensive test just to tell me I have a sprained ankle. If it seems like it's getting better, I won't worry about it. I hope I can at least walk on it in a couple weeks because we have a trapeze trip to Seattle in a couple weeks.
While this was no fun, and it's going to be a long recovery because sprains always seem to take a long time to truly heal, it could have been worse. I've been doing this sport for almost a decade with not much more than some bruises, scrapes, and sore muscles. It'll be ok....I'm also relieved it happened after our exciting week with our friends.
I am not even mad about having to sleep on our couch right now. It's so comfortable! We have this large end piece and it makes the best bed. Fortunately, Dave is feeling ok--just like he has a cold. He's been watching all the Netflix and staying in our room. I'm brining him food here and there, and he's coming out after we're all done and getting what he needs in the kitchen. I don't expect he'll be sick for long, but in the mean time, I'm perfectly happy crashing on the couch. Ava even slept out here with my last night, but I don't think her corner is quite as comfortable as mine.
I saw this posted somewhere and thought it was pretty funny given our current situation and point in history. Watch out for those cooties!
Tyler has had his permit for a couple weeks now, but this is my first time sitting in the passenger seat while he drove. Dave has been taking him across the street to the retirement community neighborhood to drive around on their wide streets with a low speed limit. It's been a good place for him to get the hang of the basics. It was a bit scary for me, but he did great! I know he's going to be a good driver....I can only hope that he makes good decisions out there on the road.
We have been extremely lucky in our family over these last two years of the global pandemic, until now. Most of Dave's siblings and parents have had it (some multiple times), some of the nieces and nephews, but we've managed to avoid it. Dave has been feeling a little bit like he was getting cold these last few days, and did take a rapid test the day before yesterday but it was negative. He took another test today and there is that faint second line announcing the news. He's feeling ok, just like a mild cold as of now. I'm going to sleep on the couch for the next few days, and when Dave comes out or I go into our room we'll wear masks. He's double vaccinated and boosted, but Omicron definitely seems to be catching even those who have had their shots. He thinks he knows where he picked it up--the client who was coughing and sneezing while standing right over him the other day, while she complained about her "allergies." Thanks to vaccines, we are sure he'll be fine, just need to get through it and hopefully not spread it to any of us.
Ok, this will be the last trapeze post--for a couple a days at least. I know the entire month of January on my blog has been trapeze related, but that's because it's been pretty much all I've done all month (or even thought about!).
I've written before about the super cool bar where Ali's husband works. She arranged for a group of us to go tonight while our guests were in town. It's a pretty small place and they don't really allow reservations for large parties, so we unfortunately couldn't invite our entire group. Originally, it was just going to be 8 of us, but we were excited that Ryan and Taeko could join us since they were staying one more night. Dave got this awesome photo of our group in this cool place.
I always have so much fun when I get to spend time with Blair! She's an amazing person.
I love this sweet picture of George and Jan.
Dave doesn't often get included in our trapeze gatherings, but I'm always glad when he gets to join us. He always gets along well with everyone, and it's great when he gets to meet my friends who he hears so much about.
I wish Ashley could have joined us, but she couldn't make it tonight. Add her to this photo and you have a picture of my trapeze besties!
We tried a LOT of different drinks, and they were all delicious. We ended up being able to add an extra half hour onto our reservation, which mean more opportunity to try new drinks. Aren't they all so beautiful?!
Ali, Rod and I were able to pick up the bill for our entire group as a thank you to George and Jan, and to our trapeze guests. It doesn't seem like much in the grand scheme of all George does for us, but it was something we could do. I'm glad Ali suggested it so I could feel like I'm giving back--even just a little bit. A few of us went out for sushi after our drinks, so we had a little more time together before we had to say good-bye to Ryan and Taeko (for real this time). We have tomorrow night with Jordan and Blair, but we had to say good-bye to the Schneiders. Our trapeze fam is headed to Seattle to see him perform in Alegria in a month, so it's just "Seattle you later!"
Today was another opportunity for me to do some catching while Jordan and Blair are here. I was looking forward to getting a chance to try to catch his double layout in the daylight, and brought Tyler along again to get some video for us. He got such great footage yesterday, I was excited to see what he could do now that he has an idea of what works.
When I got there this morning, the first thing I saw was Ryan and Taeko's dog, Fei Fei. If you'll remember my post from yesterday, they were supposed to be leaving early this morning. Ali and Jan were hanging out on the mat getting ready, and I said "why is Fei Fei here?" Ali was really quick with an answer, she said "oh, they decided to leave her with here while they went to Dallas for the interview." I thought that sounded a little strange, but I didn't really ask any questions at first. They don't go anywhere without Fei Fei! A few minutes later I said "wait, is she staying here with you, Jan, I'm confused." They acted like they didn't hear me and kept talking about whatever it was they were chatting about. As I'm getting my wraps on and ready to fly, Ryan snuck up from behind me and said "surprise!" There was an issue with their flight, so they decided to change it to tomorrow rather than have a long layover. Lucky us, we got another day together!
Long story short--I caught Jordan's double layout two more times today! I have caught Jordan's double layout more than any other female catcher. I'm pretty excited about that. I have some great video footage from Tyler to go along with it. They're big files, but you can see the first one here, and the second one here.
I was happy to have a bit of a cheering section there to watch today.
I honestly don't think I could have done this without Ryan coaching me from the ground. I was so confident with him there talking to me throughout each catch. It's pretty exciting to be able to say I was getting coached by a current Cirque catcher while catching a professional flyer (and former Cirque flyer) throwing me double layouts. I could retire from catching today and be happy with my career up there.
Here are a few more videos from the day. Jordan started out by throwing me several planches again. Ryan wanted me to work on looking for the wrists and grabbing them, rather than allowing him to slide down in my hands. I learned quite a bit about how important it is to find the wrists. Seems obvious, but with lighter tricks, you can get away with grabbing up a little higher on the forearms and sliding down. With a trick with this much momentum though, you have to get the wrists on the first try. When you slide down, you risk dropping your flyer. You might see in the video of our second double catch that I grabbed Jordan up a little high on the right arm and we slid down further than is comfortable. He's a strong enough flyer that we were able to re-grip at the top of the apron, but that could very easily have slipped out of my hands.
Here is one of the beautiful planches we caught....
Here is our first double layout from the camera on top of the shed (to really see it in detail, and slow-motion, view Tyler's videos from the links up above). We had a super solid catch on this one, but I held onto him a fraction of a second too long and it messed up our return. I was a bit bummed about that because we were on track to have such a great return! It's still amazing though, I'm not complaining!
Here is the 4th and final double layout catch of the weekend. This is the one that I had a less than ideal grip on Jordan's right hand, but it all worked out! I like how you can see Tyler in the frame, following the arc of the trick with his camera.
Speaking of amazing videos, Tyler put this one together using footage from the last couple of days. I think it is so unbelievably cool, and really shows what we're doing out there-not to mention the fun we're having. I love that this video has a little bit from everyone. I could watch it a hundred times. Thanks Tyler, I'll definitely put you to work out there again.
A week ago, I had never caught a double. As of today, I've caught NINE--five double tucks from Ali (yes, we caught it again today) and four double layouts from Jordan. That's pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. Thanks to my team, our coaches, and guests for helping make this happen!
I didn't get a picture with Jordan last night to commemorate our epic catches, so I made sure to get one today. I'm riding a serious high from last night, and I doubt that will go away anytime soon.
I couldn't have done it without Ryan's coaching, so needed to make sure to get him in on the photo too....and of course, with Blair and Taeko too.
This photos is actually from yesterday, and there's a funny story that goes with it. Our guests were planning to do a little training yesterday afternoon before we all got there. Ali and I were there to watch too because half the fun of having these people here is watching them train. They had just done their warm ups, and caught a trick or two when Jordan started throwing his Miller to Ryan (triple twisting double layout), which Ryan has never caught. It's a crazy trick--hard to imagine anyone can twist that fast while flying through the air. Anyway....they did one and Ryan only had one of Jordan's wrists, so he let him in the apron. As soon as he hit the apron, he said he heard the net tear. Sure enough, he tore a few holes in the apron and it started to spread right away. Clearly it's a safety hazard to fly on a net with any holes in it, so that was the end of their training for now. Luckily, George is a bit of a pack rat when it comes to trapeze equipment, and saved the aprons from before (which he only replaced in the last 2 years or so--possibly some sort of default for them to tear so soon). The fix so that we could keep flying was to hang the old apron on top of the one with the holes. They had to sort of sew the apron to the net, and connect them at the top. It's good to have professionals around when you need to make repairs to the net! George was at work when this was all happening, so he came home to them fixing the net. The first thing he did after seeing what happened was to get on the phone to the guy who makes everything for the rig. Before they even had it flyable again, he had ordered two new aprons. I think this photo is pretty funny--Jordan is climbing between the two aprons checking things out, while George is standing below him on the phone with his rig maker. This little fiasco meant they didn't get to train, but it was all fixed up and ready for us. We gave Jordan quite a bit of crap for wrecking our net!
Tyler came out to shoot some photos and video for us today. It's his first time shooting much of anything with his new camera, so it was a fun chance for him to try some action shots. He did quite a bit of photo today, and ended up with some great close ups (some a little too close!), which we don't usually get with a phone camera. He's learning what works and what doesn't when filming trapeze, so I'm excited to have him come out and do this for us more often.
These next photos are some that Tyler took for us, which turned out so well! The quality is amazing compared with what we're used to. Just wait until you see the video! Ryan quickly made this his profile picture on some of his various (very popular) social media accounts.
Looking good up there, Jan!
Ashley throwing a layout to Ryan, with the most lovely sky behind her.
Two of my favorite people I've met through trapeze....so grateful for the time they've spent with us, the coaching, the laughs and great conversations, and the trust they've put in me (Jordan specifically). I have had a chance to learn from some amazing professionals, and I'm forever grateful.
Ava, Dave, and Tyler came out to watch today so I had to include this shot Tyler took of Ava. It's funny to think that she was not even 4 years old when I first started doing trapeze. Now she's almost 13....time flies right along with all of us.
Here's my shoot to Ryan--the colors on Tyler's camera are so great!
No big deal, just Jordan twisting through the air 3 times before trying to be caught by Ryan. Wait until you see this on video. It'll make the things we do look like 4 year olds playing T-ball. Here's a video that Tyler shot of one of their attempts. It's in slow motion and is incredible, even thought they missed the catch. Go watch it!
Rod got a chance to do a little catching today, and caught Jordan's double layout. Tyler got a great shot of the moment just before the catch.
Check out these amazing outfits we're all wearing! I mentioned in my post about Christmas Eve that George and Jan got us all our own custom outfits made by Ali's mom. She picked patterns and colors that she thought best fit everyones favorites and she nailed it! This was such a fun day!
We said good-bye to Ryan and Taeko after today's practice as they need to get back to Dallas for Taeko's green card interview. We were bummed to see them go, but so grateful for the time together. Of all the things they could do while on break from Alegria, they chose to spend a few days with us. That means a lot to all of us, but I know for sure that George loves these visits. How did we get so lucky?
Last night was another fun night with our guests. Rod and Ryan both did some catching, but Jordan didn't fly. I think they might have trained a bit earlier in the day, so he was taking it easy and just coaching last night.
Tonight, on the other hand, was a pretty big deal. I'm actually going to have a hard time putting into words the feelings I have about this night of trapeze. It was undoubtedly the most exciting, shocking, confidence inducing, and all around best night ever. It was my turn to do some catching tonight. You'll remember that I have had a couple opportunities to catch Jordan--once when he was here in May, and again when I went to Dallas for a workshop with him. I was very excited to get some dedicated catch coaching from him while I was there. When he was here in May, he threw me some double layouts, but I didn't have any expectation that I would actually catch it. I certainly wasn't confident in my ability, especially since I hadn't seen any doubles at that point in my career, much less double layouts out of lines. I thought it was fun to try, but didn't expect it to happen.
Fast forward a few months, and after having a chance to see a bunch of Ali's doubles, I felt like I was ready to actually try to catch Jordan's double layout. He warmed me up with a few planches, which we caught and returned with no trouble. Here's a video...
I was also catching other people, and I had a couple great double catches with Ali--one that we almost returned! If the bar would have been a little better, she could have returned this. Here was my warm up double catch....
At this point, I had hung for a few of Jordan's double layouts, and been close. It was so very helpful to have Ryan there to coach me on this. I'm not sure what it was inside me that gave me the confidence to do this, but I felt ready! It was a total shock, but I actually caught Jordan's double layout tonight. TWICE. The first one wasn't the best, so I'll share a video of the second. After the first one, I joked that I was ready to retire. Right about that time, Blair and Taeko came out from inside the house (they were making dinner), so I knew I needed to try one more time. This one was money! It was so smooth.....I was in total shock that this happened at all, much less twice in a row. I know that I couldn't have done it without Ryan coaching me through it from the ground. Here is the most impressive video of me catching anyone ever...enjoy! For some background, I'm the third female catcher to ever catch Jordan's double layout--and I'm the only one who has caught it more than once!
After we got done flying, we hung out and had such a great time together. They cooked for us, and it was so delicious! Ryan grilled and Blair and Taeko made some delicious side dishes. We toasted with some tequila as is customary with Jordan, and hung out by the fire for a long time. One of my favorite parts about my Dallas trip was just getting time to hang with these amazing people, so tonight was pretty great. I honestly cannot believe I caught these tricks tonight. It's a pretty huge feather in my hat as a catcher, and I'm so thrilled to have the opportunity to do it--Jordan has to put a huge amount of trust in me, and I am so honored that he would do that. I can't wait to see what we can do in the next few days! This is the best week ever! Side note, super grateful that this amazing human joined our team! She brings so much to our group, it's like she's always been here.
