Over it . . .

Hey y'all! Thanks for your wonderful words of wisdom regarding my last post . . . I really, really appreciate them. I think you all are totally right about everything you said. As I thought about it more, I realized that for the first time--oh, ever--I don't really have any one particular thing that defines me . . . I don't really have an identity, so to speak. I've gotten so used to always working towards big accomplishments that now that I don't have any huge goals, it's making me feel a bit lost. I'm starting to realize, though, that maybe it's a good thing to be more or less goal-free for a while. Maybe I should really allow myself to just blend into the crowd and relax for a while. After all, it is creeping closer to the holiday season!

Okay, fine . . . I admit it. There's no "creeping" going on in our household! Poor Wilson has had to endure hours upon hours of Christmas music already . . . not to mention, hours of talk about Christmas decorations, holiday party planning and Christmas shopping! BUT. In my defense, I've come up with a theory that allows me to start celebrating Christmas right after Halloween ends. It goes like this: As adults, life seems to move FAR MORE QUICKLY than it ever did as children. Thus, to get an appropriate amount of holiday celebration in each year, we must start with our preparations extra early!! See? That's my story and I'm sticking too it!!

Speaking of which, I haven't gotten around to sharing the story of my horrible fall down the stairs yet. So here it is. Okay, it was a crazy, crazy day at work. We'd just gotten a new matter in that I ended up being assigned to, mostly because I'm the only competent person at my firm. Now, because I have approximately 20 other matters on my plate, I was juggling a LOT that particular day. Meanwhile, #1 A-hole (who I also mentioned here) was in prime form even for him. He called me up complaining that our copy center was taking too long to make the eight copies of about 2000 pages worth of documents for the team. I apologized and explained that they were super busy up there, and were doing the best they could . . . and he FREAKED and started bitching me out and attempting to insult my intelligence, just to make himself feel better. He then insisted that I call the copy center and cancel the job . . . and DO IT MYSELF. Hilarious. So there I was . . . pushing the rest of my work aside to make a shitload of copies.

I hurriedly printed and copied the crap #1 A-hole wanted, because--let's be honest--I'm terrified of him. So as I was finally headed upstairs to deliver it all, I realized I forgot something down at my desk. I turned and headed back down the stairs, practically running, carrying the ENORMOUS stack of documents . . . and graceful as I am, I managed to catch my heel in the hem of my pants. I stumbled and tried SO hard to catch myself, but I just knew I was going down! I tumbled, somersaulting all the way down the stupid flight of marble stairs. It must have looked/sounded really badly because I saw people SPRINTING at me from every direction--I realized later that I honestly don't think I've ever seen ANYONE run as fast as some of these people were running. There were papers and broken binder clips EVERYWHERE. My shoes had flown off in opposite directions. Although I was totally stunned, I immediately tried to get up and get to my office, apparently muttering that I needed to get the documents to #1 A-hole. My co-workers convinced me to stay down for a minute (probably convinced I'd broken my neck or something) . . . but after taking inventory of my entire body, I realized that the only thing in serious pain was my left arm. Thus, I insisted I needed to get back to my office.

One of my co-workers picked up the scattered documents, which miraculously were somehow mostly in tact, and we headed back to my office. As I got there, I realized I was actually in a LOT of pain . . . my entire arm--from shoulder to knuckles--was becoming very painful. I took a look at my elbow and realized it was swollen about three times its normal size. Realizing I still had to get the documents to #1 A-hole, I enlisted the help of my co-worker, Ariana. Ha, she had no clue what had happened, and when I showed her my arm, she freaked out. Luckily, she wasn't too busy, so she put the documents back together and delivered a copy to #1 A-hole while I iced my arm and bawled in my office. Now comes my favorite part:

When Ariana delivered the set of documents to #1 A-hole, he immediately asked her if everyone else on the team had a set as well. Her response to him was, "Well, no. Bailey fell down the stairs." He briefly asked if I was okay, to which Ariana responded, "No, she hurt her arm pretty badly." After not even the slightest bit of hesitation he goes, "Well, how long is it going to take you to get copies to everyone else?!" Lovely. I could have broken my neck and been paralyzed for the rest of my life . . . but this jerk's concern is over when the rest of our team members are going to get their documents. Thanks, buddy.

So after we got everything out to the rest of the team, we figured it might be a good idea to go to the ER and get my arm checked out. I had debated about whether to go or not (I avoid the ER at ALL costs) . . . but I finally allowed myself to be convinced to go . . . mostly because I just COULDN'T stop crying. It was so weird. I'm still not sure whether it was the pain or whether I was a little bit in shock from how scary the whole thing was. But I ultimately figured it was better to be safe than sorry, especially since it was a work accident and would be paid for by the firm.

Of course, being a NYC hospital, I was at the ER FOREVER. Then, for some reason, despite the fact that I told the doctor that my entire arm was hurting super badly, she only chose to x-ray my elbow. The initial x-ray didn't seem to show a fracture, but she said I should get it x-rayed again in a couple weeks if it was still hurting. Well, being the bad patient I am, I'm still in a great deal of pain--from my shoulder down to my wrist--and I still haven't gone back for another x-ray, despite the fact that it's now been more than 3 weeks. Oops. I guess the problem is that I keep assuming that since I can move it and sort of use it, it will probably get better on its own. But thus far? Not so much. I suppose I should probably set up an appointment sometime in the coming week. After all, worker's comp has to pay for it . . . I might as well make sure everything okay, no?

In other news, I attempted an almost long run last weekend . . . got 7 miles in at a 9:58 pace. Not too bad. Although my arm was pretty painful, and my asthmatic lungs were NOT happy with the cool air, it just felt SO good to be running. I'll probably attempt another longer run this evening. It's just too beautiful out to not do so!

Alright, this post is already way too long . . . so if you made it through the whole thing--congrats! I best wrap it up before I lose more of you! Hope everyone is having a great weekend :)