Musical chairs - A Childhood Game Responsible for My Nightmares

Last Friday Poseidon and I were hosting one of our legendary fire pit parties and as I carried chairs from the patio to the yard, I had a kindergarten flashback that stopped me cold in my tracks (literal tracks...I was trying to step in my existing foot steps each time I carried a chair):  Musical chairs.  I hated this game with every fiber of my being.  Pressure.  Pressure to win, to be the victor.  Pressure to get through this rot of a game without embarrassing myself.  The word "game" implies fun.  Evil trickery!

If you've read any of my previous posts, my aversion to most childhood games, not just musical chairs (the Chutes and Ladders post is eerily similar), is well documented.  Stress and anxietal depression are my long-time pals (the kind of friends you really don't want to play with but are too shy to say no to them), and competitive games were enough to make me sweat and tremble in sheer terror (fortunately, I was usually able to stop short of vomiting), and musical chairs was among the worst, in my opinion.

On one particular occasion when playing this game, I remember wearing a red dress with red socks and black shoes.  I was so nervous and hoping to heck I would be near a chair when the music stopped.  The anxiousness of it all turned me a nice shade of white (which I'm sure looked lovely against my red dress, red socks and black shoes).  There were three of us left, and two chairs.  The music played and played and played.  I was ready.  As soon as the music finally stopped, I turned to plant me behind in one of the remaining seats, but one of my little black patent leather shoes had other plans for me, and headed in the opposite direction.  I ended that round of musical chairs with my behind on the floor, not in one of those two seats.

Luckily, I kept my dignity in tact by not exposing my ruffled panties or this ending would have been much worse...written from behind the walls of a padded room, wrapped in a nice warm straight jacket, typing with my nose.

 

--Fortuitous Observer