The literal faceplant
Yes, I did.
I was leaving the market last night, and my foot came down wrong on one of the cracks between the pavers in the sidewalk, and I went down.
On my face.
There was this sort of sickening crunch that I thought for sure meant a broken nose, but the frantic store manager called the ambulance and the paramedics came and, after feeling around a bit, determined nothing was broken. The pupils of my eyes passed muster in reactivity, and I could write down my name, my address, my SSN and my phone number.
She asked me the date, too, but I looked at her and said, "You're kidding, right? It's SATURDAY! I don't know what the date is...." Then I told her that it was either the 18th or the 19th, and she gave me the benefit for the best one out of two. ;-)
She asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital, and I said, "What you're asking me is whether or not I want to go to the ER where I'll get to sit all night until someone can see me, only to find out that I have a cut and a bruise and I can go home...Um, no." So I told her that I'd call her if I got to feeling worse during the evening, and asked her if that was a deal. She said yes, we fist pumped, and I went home.
Well, actually, I went to Mother and Dad's to drop off a jar of the apple butter I made and get fussed over and then I went home.
Meanwhile, my poor DH was driving around frantically in the dark (he was at work when this happened), thinking that I had gone to the hospital, and when he found out I was actually on my way home, he came home and then we ordered out instead of me making dinner, and shortly thereafter I went to bed, two Aleve seeping into the pain until it mostly went away.
I'm a little achy this morning--it could be a lot worse--and my face hurts, and I feel like I have a Karl Malden nose (I don't--it just feels like I do), and basically, I'm feeling pretty lucky just to be a little banged up with nothing broken.
People were really nice to me. A lady used my phone to call Paul, and she fetched my purse and my groceries from outside the door and brought them to me (she said that when she saw the purse lying there, her first thought was that someone had gotten mugged, but then she said, "Wait a minute--this is Schwenksville--that's why I MOVED here. It can't be a mugging..."). One of the little girls who works there put my bags in the car and locked it up. It was kind of embarrassing, but it was kind of nice, too.
So yeah, I feel like a big jerk. But at the same time, it's nice to experience the kindness of strangers once in awhile, if for no other reason than to be given a reminder that it actually exists, and that we really aren't starry eyed fools to abandon our cynicism from time to time and believe that most people are basically good.
Not a bad lesson, especially for those of us who are almost terminally cranky. ;-)
I was leaving the market last night, and my foot came down wrong on one of the cracks between the pavers in the sidewalk, and I went down.
On my face.
There was this sort of sickening crunch that I thought for sure meant a broken nose, but the frantic store manager called the ambulance and the paramedics came and, after feeling around a bit, determined nothing was broken. The pupils of my eyes passed muster in reactivity, and I could write down my name, my address, my SSN and my phone number.
She asked me the date, too, but I looked at her and said, "You're kidding, right? It's SATURDAY! I don't know what the date is...." Then I told her that it was either the 18th or the 19th, and she gave me the benefit for the best one out of two. ;-)
She asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital, and I said, "What you're asking me is whether or not I want to go to the ER where I'll get to sit all night until someone can see me, only to find out that I have a cut and a bruise and I can go home...Um, no." So I told her that I'd call her if I got to feeling worse during the evening, and asked her if that was a deal. She said yes, we fist pumped, and I went home.
Well, actually, I went to Mother and Dad's to drop off a jar of the apple butter I made and get fussed over and then I went home.
Meanwhile, my poor DH was driving around frantically in the dark (he was at work when this happened), thinking that I had gone to the hospital, and when he found out I was actually on my way home, he came home and then we ordered out instead of me making dinner, and shortly thereafter I went to bed, two Aleve seeping into the pain until it mostly went away.
I'm a little achy this morning--it could be a lot worse--and my face hurts, and I feel like I have a Karl Malden nose (I don't--it just feels like I do), and basically, I'm feeling pretty lucky just to be a little banged up with nothing broken.
People were really nice to me. A lady used my phone to call Paul, and she fetched my purse and my groceries from outside the door and brought them to me (she said that when she saw the purse lying there, her first thought was that someone had gotten mugged, but then she said, "Wait a minute--this is Schwenksville--that's why I MOVED here. It can't be a mugging..."). One of the little girls who works there put my bags in the car and locked it up. It was kind of embarrassing, but it was kind of nice, too.
So yeah, I feel like a big jerk. But at the same time, it's nice to experience the kindness of strangers once in awhile, if for no other reason than to be given a reminder that it actually exists, and that we really aren't starry eyed fools to abandon our cynicism from time to time and believe that most people are basically good.
Not a bad lesson, especially for those of us who are almost terminally cranky. ;-)