What's that popping sensation?

And why are my knees all purple, blue and green? And why does every muscle in my body ache? And what is up with that popping sensation?

I went skating on Wednesday. It was ... not entirely successful.

When we got there, I saw all these little, tiny children there and I thought, dear God, I won't be able to stop! And I'll crash into them! And kill them! And their parents will be mad at me!

Fortunately, I didn't crash into any little kids. It was fun to watch them whizzing by me on the ice, skating backwards, playing tag, laughing, and screaming while I held on to the side of the rink for dear life.

The first fall wasn't so bad. I caught myself with the palms of my hands and sort of fell sideways onto my hips. I did catch my left knee on the ice, but the bruise there isn't so bad. Not quite so purple. Not quite so poppy.

The second fall. Well. Have you ever heard the sound of dead weight slamming onto the surface of the ice with such force that a loud *thud* echoes about the arena, causing all people to stop and look in horror?

I must say that the look of concern on my dad's face still brings a smile to my heart, because, quite frankly, the man was terrified. As was I. Initially, I thought that every bone in my body had simply shattered into a million pieces. My palms felt funny, but I didn't bother assessing them because my knees and chest hurt so much.

I landed knees, chest, then hands on the ice with such force that I ripped the palms of my hands open. The wind was knocked out of me and I am still pretty sure that I broke one of my ribs. It hurt to breath all day yesterday. My mom was examining my knee for damage this morning, and that's when we discovered that is you press on the left side of it, slightly below the kneecap, a piece of ligament or tendon or something starts popping around on the left side above the kneecap. Very interesting indeed.

At any rate, skating again tomorrow. I'm going with the old "Three faceplants on the ice" rule I made it up myself. It means that as soon as I've faceplanted into the ice three times, I'm outtie.

Toonses.