The Book of Awesome

In a strange (but awesome!) alignment of fate, my sister picked me up this book for my birthday, a mere 3 days after I discovered it online, decided I couldn't spend the money on it, and realized that I would probably be 158th in line for it at the library. Awesome!

If you haven't heard of this book yet, here's the gist: a man started a blog about the little things in your day that make it awesome. Things like snow days, bakery air, warm underwear out of the dryer, or finding money in your pocket.

The most hilarious entry I've read yet is this:

"Seeing a cop car and realizing you are already going the speed limit.
Heart rate goes up.
Heart rate goes down.
Awesome!"

But the most true to life entry I read was about old, dangerous playgrounds. You know the ones: metal slides that reach 50C in the hot sun and give the underside of your legs a second degree burn; metal merry-go-rounds to which you cling for dear life while whipping around at 80 mph; 10 foot high monkey bars and 12 foot high beams for balancing; made of all wood, waxed to provide a surface more slippery than ice. The playgrounds that are so dangerous they are being ripped out at record speed and replaced by brightly coloured, extremely safe and utterly boring plastic contraptions. The author insists that should you see one of the old, fun playgrounds, you MUST take time to play on it.

To my utter delight, the campground we were at these past few days had just this kind of playground. It had all sorts of levels that didn't match up right, and horizontal metal poles for hanging on. It honestly looked like a type of ship, which is what led to the boys and my game of pirates. We sailed, we dug for buried treasure in the sand, we lost shipmates overboard, we made each other walk the plank (slide down the blistering slide!), we fought off enemies with swords (sticks) and hoisted the sails and pulled up the anchor and found a golden compass that showed the direction to sail. I've never had so much fun at a playground. I climbed and swung and jumped as much as, or more, than the boys.

And, just to prove how dangerous it was, I have a nice elbow scrape that is scabbing over nicely and a throbbing headache from running face first, full force, into a metal pole. (I still don't know how I didn't see it, since I got myself right across the brow line.) But trade it for the barely inclined ramps, miles of safety poles, and slides that take over a minute to go down...no way! It was AWESOME!