Picture if you will...

Sunday we had a family reunion with my mom's side of the family. I guess I really do not need to clarify that since my father only has 1 brother, and I have never met him. Story for another day. The Parker Family Reunion was up at a park in Copperton, in the hills by the copper mine west of Salt Lake. We had the park from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. so my family went up early, as we always do. My Aunt Mary's family was there too. So the whole family (100+) had not yet arrived. I was sitting in a camping chair reading New Moon (the second book in the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer... slower than the first, but just about to get good.) My sister Colleen brought my niece Lottie over and asked me to hold her for a minute while she finished a small project she was working one for the reunion. I laid Lottie on my lap and kept reading.

I had a moment to react but here is what happened next: I had the thought "This chair is leaning back." I put my book down in time to realize that the chair was collapsing. Why is it when you only have a second to react that thought seem to come so very clear? I thought "Grab Lottie and relax, the fall will hurt less." So I put my hands on Lottie's stomach and legs and just relaxed into the fall. I also had time to say out loud, "I am falling." Which my sister Debbie thought rather funny, I did too later... much much later. And then I fell. The legs on the chair just went the wrong directions and I was on the hard ground. My butt hit the cement, my head hit the bench that was behind me, then bounced on the ground, smacked the pole next to me, and my forehead hit the bottom of the bench before I rested in a pool of pain.

Let me first say that Lottie survived the fall unscathed. She had a nice cushioned fall. My first response was to find the first person that got to me and hand her off before the stars started swirling around me. I will be honest, I came dangerously close to passing out. I laid there for a minute to get my bearings and then the hard part came: GETTING UP! What in the world? Okay so I have the best brothers ever. Barry was right there and took my hand. I had to shimmy out from under the bench and became tangled in a sea of broken chair. In hind sight I should have gotten out of the wreckage of the chair first before trying to get up; although the legs were a mangled, broken mess, the rest of the chair was in tact. So the seat was sticking up in the air. Everett grabbed the chair from behind and held it still. Patrick was there ready to help as needed. Barry is a champ and just pulled me up, I did not help much because frankly my head was still spinning a little. Deb gave me an Ibuprofen to combat what surely would be coming: PAIN!

Question: Why do the chairs never collapse on the skinny girl? Why is it always the fat girl? Yes I understand the weight ratio, etc., but seriously!! Just once let it be the skinny girl when a random thing like this happens.

Today I have bumps and bruises to show for it, and a MASSIVE headache. But the rest of the reunion was fun.