Farewell flight

The flying trapeze rig  had a fun fly in place of the workshop show, which never happened since it was rained out two weekends in a row .It was also final hurrah before closing. Forever. The rig is coming down on Saturday. And apparently, they're selling it.

It was one last chance to fly and be caught.

It was a little bit a free for all. I think 15 people showed up to fly, including the owner's children and people I haven't seen in forever.

I was the first to put my belt on, but ended up being #10 on the board, because people just went up there—and knew how I free fly worked. I didn't.

It was a little chaotic. We had three catchers there. Lots of staff. There was tons of food. (Lots of people brought food.) It was also really chilly out. They turned the heat lamp on and I huddled around it most of the night until I went and got a North Face fleece from my car. I was much comfier after that.

I worked on my swing. It's still a hot mess. And every staffer calls my swing differently, and I wasn't accustomed to the calls, so that made it worse than usual.

On my second turn it was time for a trick. I decided to do my backend split. Then, my seat roll. It was my worst seat roll in weeks. Probably because another lady did it. Oh well.

Then it was time for catching (it's usually have five turns). I did a practice backend straddle and kicked the bar. I kicked the crap out of it. I actually checked to see if I was missing skin it was so bad. It bruised almost instantly. I did this because I was opening with my hands and lower body when I just need to move my hands for the trick.

The next time up, I asked Shain if I could work in hands. I've wanted to do this for months. He first brought it up—and then I went weeks of no catches. My straddle is very catchable, so that's what I wanted to work on.

So I caught, and Rhuben told me arch and then he told me the commands that the advanced flyers do—maybe seven, hollow, sweep. I just figured it meant forward, backward, forward, so that's what I did. It was fun. I went high up in the air. And Rhuben was too far away to ever tell him that I DON'T KNOW THOSE CALLS. Apparently, I did good. (Or they were just happy it was the last night.)

Man, I wish I had a few more classes to get my return to the bar. After years of trampoline craziness, I think I could get my return to the bar soon. (Ha ha. It's probably really difficult.)

We ended catches with Megan ALMOST getting her double. It was so loud when she missed. And to end on a good note, she finished with a split catch. She has a very pretty split.

At this point, a few people were crying. Trapeze is their life. (I get it! I'm seriously considering moving to be closer to a rig.) I'm still in denial though. I'll find another way to fly. Something will open up in the spring.

Then, there was singing and birthday cupcakes. It was one of the owner's birthdays. There was a champagne toast. And shots. And hugs. And reminiscing.

At 10 p.m., people were getting happy and silly with the very liberal shots of tequila being poured. I'd been at work and ON since 7:30 that morning. I was waiting for someone to leave so I could slip out.

It's my old lady bed time! I have to be at work at 8 a.m. I left. Feeling a little out of place. I was the new person. Everyone had been coming longer than me. And are all close friends.

I haven't cried yet about the rig. I feel like I should. I'm heart broken. I've brainstormed ways to get a rig.

• Doesn't the university want a rig? (If FSU has one, shouldn't we?)
• Something has to open up in Atlanta (apparent Trapeze School NY tried and failed in Atlanta.)
• They'll change their minds (selling the rig does seem pretty final)
• Maybe they'll teach circus classes in town (they've said they don't have time.)

I love having circus in my life. And don't know what I'll do without it.