We had a big weekend here in Augusta. I woke up Saturday morning exhausted with a bit of a headache. I laid on the couch and watched law and order for a couple of hours then Britt and Ross and I went to the mexican restaurant for a late lunch. It was a beautiful day, and Ross said he felt like he was in college (Ross often has to work on Saturdays and he didn’t this weekend, so he was excited). Britt and I both echoed the college sentiment. We sat out on the deck at the mexican restaurant and split a pitcher of beer, since we are so college. To make the day even more college we made plans to play bocci ball later in the afternoon for a good excuse to be outside and drink another beer.
Before bocci, but after lunch, we took the dogs to their friend Riley’s third birthday party. Riley is a very pretty golden retriever and she was excited about her birthday. Briscoe and Grayson were the smallest dogs there and it was a lot of fun. The party was in the backyard, and we were sitting out on a deck. Britt and I were sitting on the railing of this deck, when Ryan (Riley’s person) decided we needed a picture. So Ryan went to sit on the railing with us. Within seconds, the railing gave way.
It happened in slow motion. I saw Ryan falling, and I thought, that is weird, she shouldn’t be falling like that, and at the same time I felt myself falling. We hit the two lower railings, landed on the edge of the deck, then all three tumbled backwards off the deck, through the bushes, and on the the ground. We are lucky we hit so many things on the way down, because we probably fell easily six feet altogether.
Nothing was broken, and we are all going to live, but I got pretty banged up. Now, I bruise easily, I think it is mostly because I have transparent skin, so any bruise looks terrible, but I look like someone beat me up. My shirt was torn, although i didn’t notice it until later in the afternoon. I have significant bruises on both arms, my back, my right calf has a real pretty purple bruise, and right below my right ankle is a nice shade of blue. And I somehow pulled a muscle in my left leg as well.
As I was laying on the ground staring up at the bushes I’d just damaged, I thought, this is how days change. This is how you go from making plans to play bocci ball all afternoon in the sunshine to spending the day in the emergency room. Granted, we were all fine, but we could have just as easily not been fine. And it happens that quickly. In the blink of an eye.
It took us a few minutes to get up from the ground, and everyone crowded around and brushed us off and made sure we were all in one piece.
All Ross had to say about us falling off a deck was – COLLEGE!
the thin line between optimism and delusion... 