Hitting the boardwalk

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During my study abroad semester I spent two weeks laying on the beach in Nice, soaking up the Mediterranean sun and writing the outline to my research paper. One day, I decided to take a break from working to rent some roller blades and cruise down the boardwalk. Now, I do not roller blade, don’t ask me what possessed me to do this. I was under the spell of a bad influence, I think. Everything was going fine, the boardwalk was clear, the path smooth. I went a ways in one direction, rested, and then turned around to head back to the rental booth. All of a sudden there were people everywhere! I was scooting along as carefully as I could, not really into the idea of hurting myself with a month of traveling left. Then it happened….a little girl on a bicycle.

She wasn’t paying attention to where she was going until she was right in front of my feet. There were no escape paths, not to the left, not to the right. Stopping wasn’t an option. So I jumped. I jumped right over that little girl and her bike--a straight, vertical jump. To this day, five years later, I have no freaking clue how I did that. The most amazing part? I survived!! I landed like a cat and kept right on skating. I turned long enough to yell at her to be more careful, in both French and English assuming there was a good chance she knew one or the other.

That was the last time I was on roller blades. Don’t ask me to do it again.



www.myspace.com/jetsettingwomen

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