Today was one of those days where it could only get better considering the way it started. Take a look at this:
That’s pretty ugly, don’t you think? Here’s what happened to bring us to this. I was leaving for work, and had to cross a snow mountain that’s between the sidewalk in front of my apartment building (not the public sidewalk), and the parking lot of my apartment complex. The property management had not dug out any gaps of any kind so that people could walk through. What I ended up walking over was a low spot on it, but still, I had to cross a snow mountain. So I got over the snow mountain, and then coming down, I stepped on some black ice. Down I went, landing on my knee. I left a nice spot of dirt on my jeans, and it felt like I had skinned my knee. It hurt like hell in that superficial-wound kind of way. But I got right back up and headed to the bus. It hurt continuously all the way to the office, and it didn’t stop until 10:30 or so.
Of course, in going to the bus, I had to make a decision: Do I go back in, change my pants, and then take the Y bus to work, or go forward and catch the 51 bus? I decided to go forward, and the hell with the dirty spot. And I caught my 51. See, to go back would have required crossing the snow mountain two more times, and that would be like tempting fate.
On my way into the Metro, I updated my Facebook status on my Droid to say, “Ben Schumin fell on ice on the way into work today.” This is when we find out that word truly does travel fast when you post on Facebook. I didn’t even get three steps into the office, and someone said that they’d heard that I fell on the ice on the way in today. Yeah, word travels fast. And I wasn’t at all ashamed of showing the dirty spot on my jeans where I went down. After all, it was a mark of an experience, and besides, I went down and got right back up. Took that bullet like a man, so to speak. Arrrrr…
I couldn’t actually inspect my knee until I got home, though, since I couldn’t get the pantleg of my jeans up high enough to look at it without touching it and causing amazing amounts of pain. And yeah, it hurts. I got a few looks going home on the Metro when I sat down and made this pained expression because when I sat down, the leg of my jeans shifted (as pantlegs do between sitting and standing), and that was no fun.
But at least I didn’t really get hurt all that bad. I can handle a little scrape. It could have been much worse. I didn’t pull any muscles, didn’t sprain anything, and didn’t break anything. I think I did pretty well when you consider that. And I didn’t wreck my jeans, either, from what I can tell. Excellent.
Now, though, the question is what to do this evening with my knee. I’m thinking beer. I think that one beer ought to hit the spot tonight, and distract me just enough to forget about this skinned knee…