luck, gratitude and how accidents happen.

I had ups and downs (not literally, thank g0d) yesterday. Ups were in the middle of the day with my 45 mins. of reading "Princess Bride" and, most of that time, retelling my accident story to the 3rd and 4th Graders at Pueblo Gardens Elem. School. They soak up details from stories like a thirsty traveler in a dry desert. Words and attention to them are like an oasis in their, often, economically distressed lives. Their attention to me brought on tears and their hugs brought me to smile. But I had pushed it a bit too long in the car (3 hrs) with a trip to my primary doctor's office to pick up paperwork for a handicap parking pass and stops at Walgreen's for tylenol and McDonald's for something to drink. I came home and sort of napped, half listening to my neighbor's 4 year old daughter blithly singing a made-up song about selling lemonade.

Then I fell into a deeper funk (4-7 p.m. seems to be a hard time for me) and my leg began to ache differently than it has--maybe because tylenol doesn't seem to work as well for me as advil but the advil is out until after surgery since it is a blood thinner (which I didn't know).

I turned off t.v. and read, then, turned it back on to watch Seinfeld which made me laugh a bit--even those reruns for the 15th time are funnier than most on tv (except for Parks and Rec and, sometimes, 30 Rock).

I did sleep pretty well--dreamed about an old boyfriend, our former westside house and the feeling of taking of my cast to look at the bruises I imagine are under the plaster. This morning I really had to take my time with my stretches and grimaced as the vice-like feeling drains into my leg as I stand. But stand I did, and got going with breakfast and the NY Times.

It's beautiful outside. Poor Mark is doing house duties. He came outside to look at the ladder again--a safety colleague suggested we not move it until we contact a lawyer and he may have discovered how the could have happened but time will tell. There is more to this reality and I will be interested in what a lawyer tells us.

I read an article today about a 78 year old woman who fell down a local hotel stairs several years ago and died. The hotel stairs lacked a safety railing, there was poor quality carpeting on the stairs and lack of visibility on the stairs. My reaction: gratitude that a head injury wasn't the end result of last Saturday (about a week ago exactly as I write this at 10 a.m.). Her family sued, and won, 2.4 million. Of course, the woman is dead and money won't bring her back but if this ladder has a flaw we need to pursue legal action--someone else might not be as "lucky" as I am.

I am going to take it a bit easier today. I hope a friend might call or come by to visit but we'll see. A week from now I hope to be feeling better--or worse, but on the road to recovery.