Trampoline Palace

I'm pretty sure heaven will be filled with fun stuff like giant warehouses filled with seemingly endless trampolines that are supervised by power hungry high schoolers. For the living, one can find a slice of heaven in a crummy part of Houston.

I first learned about Sky Zone in a pretty fantastic phone call from a friend of mine.

You know when a call starts with a line like that you're in for something good.

This was not your everyday invitation, but my answer was obvious.

I was practically out-of-my-gourd excited throughout The Day of the Jumping.

 

 

Part of why I was so excited was because I had a trampoline growing up and knew how to do a flip. One time I flipped right off the edge and landed on my head. I'm pretty sure I had a serious concussion, but I didn't know what that was at the time so I crawled off, threw up, and fell asleep somewhere.

I'm not entirely sure how I made it through that one.

I figured I was going to impress everyone at the trampoline palace if I did a flip.

I was kind of in a funny mood when we arrived because, while waiting for my friends in the parking lot, I finished a sad book about teenagers with terminal cancer just before entering a place where you bounce around with joy.

Man, bouncing was great! There were a billion smaller trampolines all connected to one another so that you could bounce all around. There were even trampolines on the walls to bounce off. Plus, you had to wear these cool blue space shoes.

I think my favorite part was the militant high school supervisors who served as the trampoline versions of lifeguards. If you fell down during a maneuver and it took you longer than about 2 seconds to get up, they became pretty agitated.

I was pretty excited to show off my flip. It's always fun to be an uncoordinated, nonathletic chump who is actually kinda good at something almost athletic. This excitement was soon mitigated:

Apparently doing a flip on a trampoline is super easy. Go figure.

Here's a real photo to provide a better sense of all this. I'm the white blur at the top of the shot. I have no clue who that person in the background is. I actually never saw him while we were there, so I'm not entirely sure he isn't a ghost or an angel who showed up in my cell phone camera.

I love the idea that a ghost or an angel would be hanging out at this place on a Thursday evening.

Maybe that means there aren't trampolines in heaven.

Dang.