Funny thing happened today...

So, it was 4:00. I was preparing to leave max's house on a typical sunday afternoon. He's at camp, helping with a chrysalis. (young adult retreat-type-thing.) so - it was my turn to walk the girls in his absence. I had done said walking and all girls performed successfully. I was 2/3 of the way done packing the car with clean clothes, computer, toiletry bag, and random other things.

So, on this beautiful sunday afternoon, bandit & cordy were on the porch, currently joined by lady, resident stray border collie. (open for adoption - pics to be coming soon.) Since the girls were on the porch, it requires the porch to be gated with a make-shift security gate. Said gate requires all adults to step over the porch railing from the step landing to gain entrance to the porch, and also upon leaving, to precariously balance on the porch edge (about 3 inches) before shifting weight to the step landing.

(can you see where this is going?)

So, in my anticipation to leave & be home for grey's anatomy (which, BTW, is annoyingly a summary of past episodes), I was in a rush on my last trip out the door. I had a cup full of sweet tea, my curling iron, purse and was heading for home. I had max's key in my hand, ready to place it underneath our secret key-hiding-place. I gave the girls each a treat and stepped over the railing. in my state of rush-ness, i had not tied my tennis shoes. I stepped over with my right foot and then my left. unfortunately, my left foot stepped right on top of my right shoelace. in a moment of bad judgement, I thought - "I can just P-U-L-L my right foot away and step onto the ledge." unfortunately, my shoelace had other plans.

In what seemed like forever, I fell backwards off of the 6-foot high porch.

My thoughts included: "well, fuck."
"so this is what it feels like to fall 6 feet"
"oh shit"
"hope i don't break anything"
"max was the one talking about falling off his porch, and I'm the one who does it."
"did anyone see me?"
"If i was seriously hurt, no one would find me for a while. that kinda sucks."

I landed - with a thud. I don't know what hit first, but my knees and hips hurt, and my back is scractched up from mid-back to waist, from the small bush that greeted me when i landed. my left knee has a yet-to-be-bruise and scrape. my left calf has a L-O-N-G scratch, probably from the porch as I fell. My right knee has a scrape, from ... um.... i don't know. my right fore-arm is pretty banged up, also from injuries unknown. Max thinks i would have thrown my arms out, and possibly banged it on the stair landing as I fell.

all I know is - i'm pretty sore, and there are bruises just WAITING to make their apperanace tomorrow.

is this enough to call in for work tomorrow? I have a 5 hour meeting tomorrow about my current (and soon to be former) project. children's advocates (professionals) are going to be helping us shape our 2007 legislative agenda. something i'll have absolutely no part of. plus, a friend with whom i'm currently at odds with (you'll recall the key incident) is also invited to this meeting, so there's the possibilty that I may see her. this could be awkward. this could be worse than falling off the porch.

so now i'm on my 2nd glass of wine (i found my favorite wine in bham with max this weekend - coppola's pinot grigio - the wine we drunk the week i was home in january with family drama) in hopes that i'll sleep well tonight, despite the pain in laying down & rolling over to find a comfortable space.

on other notes - wedding plans are coming along. i got our flowers ordered this weekend, and found a salon that could possibly handle 6 updo's and 3 makeups for the wedding day. now we just have to handle reception food & i'll feel much better.