#fallingdownthestairs

Falling down a flight of stairs and concluding with your feet firmly planted is a mixed experience to be sure.  I was going down the stairs of my building that I’d descended thousands of times before, wearing a pair of shoes I’d worn zero times before.  They weren’t even high heels, just a regular pair of lace-up boots, a little stiff.  Apparently too stiff for me to bend my ankle in order to point my toe downward and land on the next step while my heel cleared the previous one.  My ankle didn’t bend and the heel of my foot caught on the step.  This sent me tumbling down the stairs, past my boyfriend as limbs and those heavy boots clunked against each level.  But after the last step, something amazing happened.  I landed in a squat with both feet on the ground, my arms in front of me, and without taking another step or using my arms, I pulled myself upright.  I’d stuck the landing, like one of those baby Chinese gymnasts!  I was Catwoman!

If you happen to fall down the stairs, I would highly recommend landing on your feet.  It’s never fun falling down the stairs, but landing on your feet gives you more opportunities to play it off.  After you land, you can shout, “Tada!” and either bow or do one of those gymnast, arms up, arched back moves after they land from swinging around on those bars.  Your friends will think you’re an expert in physical comedy, fully in control of all your haphazard movements.  They’ll laugh and think you’re so funny and down to earth for risking your neck to surprise them with that crazy move.  Or they’ll assume you’re a Hollywood stunt actor and secretly wonder if you can introduce them to Mark Ruffalo.  They don’t want to be too obvious about it, so they’ll probably just spend the rest of the night bringing you drinks and trying to impress you. 

Since I’ve only stuck that one landing, my experience can be summarized thusly:

Con:  Falling down the stairs.

Pro:  Feeling like Catwoman.