It was 4 a.m. at Galaxian when Laura asked me to watch the moonbounce for a little while, she had been doing it for no less than an hour. I was pretty tired from dancing and walking around all night, so I figured it would be fun watch the moonbounce for a minute. I wanted to be a good moonbounce operator, so the first thing to do was to read the rules of the moonbounce.

1) No Shoes
2) No Flipping
3) No Rough Play
4) No Pens or Sharp Objects
5) No Candy, Drinks, or Gum
6) No Silly String

I think that there were actually eight rules, but those were the important ones.

At first, things seems like they are going to go smoothly. The moonbounce is
filled with warm and fuzzy people laying all over the place and for the most part, not moving. Things would change when new moonbouncers enter the arena. Suddenly there is heavy bouncing and rough play. A Girl is doing flips, so I say no flipping, but just as a disclaimer. I am trying to be cool, not regulating. Well, that is not the right attitude for a moonbounce bouncer. She is trying to do a backflip when she lands on the back of her head. The entire rest of her body looks like it wanted to land on her front. She recoils back 180 degrees, and she is not moving. Are you Okay? a moonbouncer asks.

"Hhhhhhhhhhuuuuuuh, Hhhhhhhhhhuh, Hhhhhhhhhhuh. sound comes from the
girl who can only do half flips.

Everyone is thinking or saying "Shit, fuck, damn." And me, because I wanted to
be "cool" am responsible for the paralysis of a party kid. I go around the moonbounce and ask her if she is okay. She says that she does not want to move and everyone thinks that she will never walk again. A minute later, she wants to leave the moonbounce, and it seems like she only had the wind knocked out of her. In front of the moon bounce some guy tells me that she had slipped a disk. He shows me where on her back he found the slipped disk, and how he popped it back into place. And this is all in the first 5 minutes.

"Do you have any silly string?"
"What?"
"Silly String, do you have any silly string?"
"No"
"Are you sure about that"
"Yes"
"Turn around, hands on your head"
I would then proceed to frisk the confused yet compliant potential moonbouncer.
"Okay, your cool, but if I see any silly string, youre outta here. Got that?"
"Uhm, Okay."
I went through this same exact drill with no less that 10 party kids. Eventually a
small crowd of two or three people, including Sam, formed to watch the show. It was interesting to see people put up with unreasonable search for Silly String.

Hey guys, please dont fall into the sides of the moonbounce, if you are going to
fall, fall into the middle. Hey you, cmon, dont fall into the side of the moonbounce.

Okay dude, your'e messing up the moonbounce. "What, are those shoes? You are OUT, OUT, dude, no moonbounce for you." As he exits the moonbounce this blatant violator of the moonbounces most sacred and respected rule talks smack.

"Im scared of you. "
(He is being sarcastic.)

"Well, some poeple are just more timid than others, I guess."
(I'm always being sarcastic)

"No, really dude, you scare me"

"What?"

Lara is back by now and she being cool, so she says to forget about that guy.

"This is my friends party, man."

"Oh, this is your friends party? Oh.shit man, my bad, I did not know this was
your friends party. You can wear shoes in the moonbounce if this is your friends party."

"Why dont you get some of those Eskimo shoes with the big spikes?"

"Are you part of 26C?"

"Uhm, no I am just watching the moonbounce, actually, I am on Ravers Digest."

"Oh, who are you?"

"Uh, Im Mark."

"Oh, number 37?"

"Uh, yeah, thats me."

"Can you put me in your story?"

"Uh, I don't know, there would have to be some sort of Graphic Sexual Encounter or something, really."

"This is my boyfriend"