Like, can you ride a bike? Do a cartwheel? Catch, throw, hit a ball? Jump rope?

Yes to all but the cartwheel, provided that we're talking about childhood skills rather than adult ones.

Like, can you ride a bike? Do a cartwheel? Catch, throw, hit a ball? Jump rope?

No, no, kinda, sorta, no, yes.

And I can rollerskate, but now it scares me.

Yes, Childhood I think. I can still do cartwheels, but I'm a freak. Cartwheels are, I think, gendered.

Have you ever tried to teach an adult to swim? Not inconsiderable.

No, but I've never tried to teach an adult to pat her head while rubbing her belly, either.

I do remember learning to locomote with my head under water (as opposed to the generalized doggy-crawl) at about age seven, because I gave myself a black eye due to locomoting with my eyes closed, directly into the wall of the pool.

In fact, it is the only black eye I have ever had.

I can ride a bike, but it's been decades. I grew up in the country, and distances, hills and roads without shoulders kept me from going far. Can jump rope. Fairly incompetent with a ball. Cartwheels are a mystic art to which I have not been initiated.

Cartwheels are, I think, gendered.

Very true. That would be a great name for an all-girl punk band, too, now that I think about it.

Just read this story and it made me happy, so I thought I'd share it. [link]

I admit I was skimming when I saw this and wonder what I did to make ita hate me.

I knew as I was typing that I was doing something messy, but the caps and lowercase are so different in my head I couldn't work out what. Sorry! No hateration from me in your direction, rest assured.

Up to 1993, I'd only spent two years living not-on-an-island. And for most of my time in Michigan I lived right up on the river. New Orleans, on the Bayou.

I only wish I could be that close to the water here, but I can smell it, and that's a start. It's only 10 minutes away. Mostly.

Like, can you ride a bike? Do a cartwheel? Catch, throw, hit a ball? Jump rope?

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Though I can't: ride without using my hands or do any fancy jump roping. Never worked out how to learn, either. And thinking about it, I could swim decently before I started learning any of those, because I don't actually remember initially learning to swim.

Like, can you ride a bike?

Yes.

Do a cartwheel?

No.

Catch, throw, hit a ball?

Yup. Baseball was my favorite sport to play as kid. Though I wasn't particularly good at it.

Jump rope?

Maybe? I think I can do the basic just jump over the rope thing without killing myself, but anything more complicated leads to badness.

Like, can you ride a bike? Do a cartwheel? Catch, throw, hit a ball? Jump rope? Skate? Any other skill I didn't mention?

yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, too broad.