Monday, July 16, 2007

Going down in blaze of glory

Last Thursday and Friday I went to LA for a work conference.
As you might guess, I am still in the honeymoon stage of my job. Coupled with the fact that I was going to get to hang with some of my most favorite colleagues, I was happy to be going to this conference.
I got up at 4:15am that Thursday morning. Wasn't so happy abut that. The pups somehow know when I'm going out of town because they have a tendency to raise hell ALL NIGHT LONG the night before I leave. I dragged myself out of bed, dragged myself to the aiport and dragged myself onto the plane.
After the double shot latte kicked in, I was normal enough for human interaction. Like most work conferences, we were on the go, go, go. We had a "working" lunch and more guest speakers.
Lucky for us, the last speaker of the day was just spectacular. She was lively and engaging. I was really interested in what she had to say. Truly! I even got irritated that I had to use the restroom because I didn't want to miss any part of her lecture. But I drink 64 oz a day, remember, so I had to go. I was seated in the back and knew I could make a quick exit and return.
I whispered to my seatmate, "Let me know what I miss" and went for the door.
OK, I don't know exactly what happened. I know I meant to open and walk through the door but what I did was a half fall/ half sprawl and HIT the door. Yes, that's right. I ATE IT. Big time.
I had a million thoughts running through my head all at once -
"Sweet Mary, did I just fall?"
"Ow! My ankle really hurts."
"Sh*t, am I covered up? Of COURSE I would be wearing a skirt today."
"This GD ankle hurts like a mother!"
"Maybe no one heard me and I could get back up without too many people noticing."
... and, I'm sure, other things that I can't recall.
This all happened in a split second. So there I was, sprawled on the floor, hoping that I've managed to cover my underoos before anyone saw them. I was a little dazed and I sincerely thought that maybe no one noticed my fall. I thought that I hadn't made a sound. Evidently, I had made a thud against the door, then another thud onto the floor. To make matters worse, a woman had then yelled, "Oh no, the baby!!!!"
See, there was another petite, ethnic (by that I mean brown) gal who happened to pregnant. And the woman who yelled, bless her heart, probably rarely sees brown people so she got us confused and worried a whole bunch of people. So a FLOOD of people come rushing to me. Most already knew it was me, though, and came over to help.
Mind you, all those thoughts and more that I listed above were still racing through my mind. My boss ran over and asked me if I was OK. HER boss had run over and asked if I was OK. The one out of two men in the room asked if I was OK and did I need him to carry me to a chair?
No, no," I waved everyone away, "I'm fine! Just leave me here and go back to the lecture! I'm OK. I just can't move."
Because THAT made sense to me. My ankle hurt and I couldn't pop back up like I thought I could and the lecturer had stopped because I caused a major scene.
I had just wanted to go to the loo.
"Please, go ahead! I'm fine. I'm fine! I just like to be dramatic, is all. Leave me here to collect my thoughts and I'll be fine."
In case you're wondering, yes, I still had to go to the bathroom at this time but my ankle hurt more than anything so I just held it.
The vice president and senior vice president told everyone to go back to their seats and they would take care of me. I didn't want to get up so I kind of butt-scooted through the door and rested outside on the lobby floor (I had nothing to lose at this point.)
Another coworker brought me ice and I eventually heaved myself into a chair. When it was determined that I did not break or twist but had actually rolled my ankle, everyone was OK with leaving me alone with my thoughts until I was good enough to go back into the room.
And that is how I went down in a blaze of glory (without the glory) at a work function.

6 comments:

Veronica said...

okay...I was seriously worried..but you also made me laugh. outloud..in the silent livingroom...sorry...but I needed that.

Is everything okay?

ElleDee said...

Oh yes. I went and saw the doctor yesterday because it was still sore. I ended up re-spraining the ankle I had injured a few years back. Jon recommended that I ask about my training for the 1/2 marathon. The doc said she didn't advise that I keep training because I could easily injure it again (since it's obviously weak.) While it will be nice to have my Saturday mornings back, this was sort of a personal test for me so I'm disappointed that I've got to stop. I'd never run so much before! But, once the ankle is strong again, I'll try to give it a go. I just know I'll never push myself to run more than three miles on my own :(
And, on the shallow side, I am relieved to say I didn't get too embarassed. Probably because I didn't have my skirt go over my head and I didn't flash my bits. That's always a good thing.

demondoll said...

Oh, Sister! That must have something, hm? And all I can think is- thank goodness she had fresh underoos, and that I might have accidentally made weewee if I'd been so startled...

ps- The Boy wants to know if you are coming up in late August. He's supervising this comment.

demondoll said...

I keep confusing Bon Jovi with Journey, which I KNOW is lame. Mebbe it's all the hair?

C said...

girl I was embarassed for you as I read the entry. I'm sorry.. at least you took it like a sport. i'm sorry about stopping your training. shoot when you JUST got your mp3s too!!!! man. you better let some Physical therapist fix it and wrap that puppy up so you can run run run!

and HELLO ms. D'doll! how can you confuse Journey and bon jovi. Steve perry was only the cutest man ever back in the day! =)

ElleDee said...

Yes, it was embarassing but surprisingly, I wasn't too embarassed at the time because it hurt. But afterwards, I was "the girl with the ankle." Nice, huh?
And THANKS for all those songs!! It came in last night!