It was one of those moments when you say to yourself, “This might not have been a good idea.”

I was recently on vacation and while watching kids whip around the lake on tubes and other floatation fun, I slipped back into my sixteen year old self. Why not?

So when the boat driver said, “Who’s next?” I put my hand high in the air, with confidence, remembering that I’d had fun with this many times. What I didn’t put into the equation was the decades that have since passed.

Climbing off the stern of the boat, my biggest concern was keeping my bathing suit bottom on. Too late now, I wasn’t about to do the walk of shame back into the boat.

Let me preface my ride results with a few changes that have happened in tubing since “my” day in the sun. First of all, there is room for three people. Wasn’t I happy when two other mothers followed me onto the tube; bookends of safety.

Secondly, the tube is now cushy. It has padded handles. Don’t you remember the tubes we had to use?! My parents stopped by a trucking company to get our tubes. They were real tubes, fully equipped with the air spout that was sure to cut your arm many times over the summer, if not rip a hole in it. We didn’t care. It was just part of the game (be sure the tube is flipped to the right side). The black color of our tubes attracted horse flies on really hot days in upstate New York; luckily we had the Finger Lakes to cool us down.

So back to my tubing, taking place just four days ago. I gingerly hopped onto the tube, friends followed and we took our places. Within 15 seconds I was saying to my self, “This might not have been a good idea.” It quickly followed with thoughts like, “How long can this last?” And on to “I think I’ll just do this once.”

We all made it back onto the boat, with our bathing suit bottoms on and intact. I shook my head and said, “That was FUN!”

Back on the dock there was a small group of sixteen year old kids. I couldn’t help overhearing them talking about how sore they were from yesterday’s tubing. “Oh no.” Today is day four and I’m just feeling like myself again.

Our monkey is very popular with our stationery friends. The monkey can be found in the swimming tube, shown above, as well as under an umbrella, pulling a wagon of bananas, hanging from a chandelier and even balancing on a pile of Christmas gifts for the holidays. Let the monkey keep you company at your desk. Like all our designs, the monkey is available on all our products.