Car wreck

On Monday, I was in a car accident. It was not my fault. I was just driving up the GSP, minding my own business, thinking about the Starbucks that awaited me 2 miles up the road.

See? That's me, in the right lane. I look innocent, right?

As we passed the exit, the woman driving the car in the center lane must have realized that we were passing her exit. Rather than take the next exit and have to turn around, she decided to cut across the right lane and try to make the exit. Unfortunately for both of us, I was in the right lane.

At 65 miles/hr, pretty much all I could do was slam on the breaks and scream. So I did.

The front driver's side corner of my car connected with the back end of her car on the passenger's side. Her back windshield shattered, spraying glass all over the front of my car. She spun out and did a 360, coming to a stop in the grass between the exit and the highway. I pulled over onto the shoulder of the road and turned off my car.

It was scary.

Neither one of us were seriously injured, but we both got whiplash. I went to the chiropractor the next day and he said that my neck is pretty messed up and I have several ribs out of place.

I was planning to inject some humor in this blog - but it looks like all you get in that respect are my kindergarten-level drawing abilities. It's still a little too fresh in my mind.

Re(strain)ing from exercise

ARRRGGGHHHH!!! No, I'm not being a pirate. I'm trying to express the frustration I'm feeling, but wasn't sure how to put it in print.

I finally started working out consistently again. I've run a couple of miles several times a week for the last couple of weeks. When I get out of the habit of exercising, it's hard to get back in it. And it has been a while since I got out of it.

I've been trying to motivate myself to start working out again for a long time now, so it's been feeling great to be doing it again. Once I get started, it's not too hard to motivate myself. I don't run very fast or for very long, but my plan was to build up my endurance and speed for a couple of weeks, then join a gym and start doing other things, too.

Last Tuesday, I started warming up to run, and my ankle started hurting. I was a little worried. But I took a couple of days off, then started running again and everything was fine.

But I think that yesterday, I pulled a muscle. The ironic thing is that I ran a couple of miles in the morning and I felt great. It was later, when I was walking to the bus stop to meet Jill that I felt a sudden pain in my calf. I was walking quickly and uphill, so I guess that's how I pulled it. But I wasn't really sure if I had pulled it at that point. It just hurt. Then is started hurting more. And more. You get the idea.

I still wasn't sure what was wrong with it this morning, so I thought that maybe it would be a good idea to run a little and see if it helped to exercise it. I was wrong. It was a bad idea. I'm pretty sure it's a pull. Now I'm frustrated because I think it takes about a week to heal. That's going to throw off my momentum! What am I supposed to do for exercise between now and then? Not to mention the fact that I have a tango class tonight! What if I can't get back into running after it heals? AAAAHHHH!!!

I'm falling apart

When I decided to go on a 12-day hike in June, I had no idea how long it would take for me to fully recover. After the second day of said hike, I lost patches of skin of about 1-1/2" in diameter from both heels of my feet. Also during the hike, three of my toes were smashed. Two toenails on my right foot were smashed by my too-tight hiking boots (incidentally, also the inspiration for my patented invention, Peel-Away-Skin). One toenail on my left foot was smashed during a fight over whether a certain food item is referred to as a "cookie" or a "biscuit." I won't mention any names, but if you're at all familiar with my hiking companions - it shouldn't be too hard to figure out who I was fighting with. And no, a "ciscuit" is not a good compromise. My heels healed over (hmm...) within a week of finishing the hike, but the skin there is still pink and shiny. My toes, however, are a different story. Within the last week or so, I have lost portions of three different toenails. So, of course, I have pictures to share!

It's kind of weird. I've always been really healthy and never had to go to the hospital for broken bones or other injuries growing up. But during the course of the past year, I've been a wreck. In November, I broke the little toe on my left foot (you can tell by comparison in the above picture that it didn't heal back the same!); in February, I gave myself a mild concussion and bled all over the place; then in June, I destroyed my feet on this hike. So the question of the day is: What is the most memorable injury you've had in the last year? Alternative question of the day: What is the stupidest thing you've ever done to cause injury to yourself? My answer to both questions is the same: The concussion I gave myself in February happened when I stood up quickly, hitting my head on the cupboard door that I had just left open. I unknowingly cut my head on the glass pane and discovered it moments later when blood started dripping on my clothes. This just happened to be right at the beginning of finals, and it unfortunately affected my memory. I got headaches whenever I listened to, read, or spoke Spanish - not a good thing since my classes were taught in Spanish and my finals were given in Spanish. One night I even had to have Kelly explain my own notes to me because I didn't understand them (I had written them all in Spanish). Needless to say, not one of my proudest moments.