Ouch! Ministering angel on the ice

An hour ago I was in my fuzzy fleece pants, all snuggly on the couch, sipping a glass of wine, with the Christmas tree ... er, I mean, the Advent tree (sorry, D!) all lit up, feeling very good about being warm and at home with D. when it's so miserable out. Granted, I have a stack of blue books to get through, but still, life is good.

And then the phone rang; it was a friend in trouble, feeling very sad and lonely (she's also waiting for tenure news; she and her boyfriend just broke up; life is all-around miserable) and asking if I could come over and bring my grading and hang out for awhile, since she's lonely and miserable and needs a friend. To the blogosphere, although certainly not to her, I'll admit that my heart sank; I really, really didn't want to go back outside on the icy roads. I invited her over to our house and said that D. was fixing dinner and that she could spend the night and we'd take care of her all evening; but she had just taken a bath and was in her pajamas and wanted to be at home with her cat instead of going out in the cold. Fair enough, of course, but it's a problem when both of us really want to stay at home instead of going out. And she's the one in distress, while I'm the one feeling good about life, so in my ongoing pursuit of goodness, I packed up my grading, put on my snow shoes and my down jacket, and headed out to be a generous friend.

And those good intentions lasted about two steps.

Turns out that our back porch had become a sheet of solid ice in the last couple of hours. So on the third step, my feet went out from under me and I went flying down the three steps. I landed very hard on the ground, catching most of my weight on my butt, with my back hitting one of the concrete steps, and with my left hand getting very banged up in the process. My clipboard snapped in half in the fall; to me, this seems a clear indication of just how hard the fall was, although I'll admit I don't know how difficult it is to break a clipboard.

So I came back in and said, in a very pathetic voice, "D., I just fell down. I hurt myself." She went out and iced [Edit: D. did NOT ice anything -- it's not like she's Mr. Coldmeiser and has that power, and it's not like she's trying to kill me! She SALTED the back porch and the walk -- and the front porch and walk as well -- to de-ice it. Damn my aphasia!] salted the walk and back porch and made me take drugs. Given how my tuchus is feeling already, I predict a very sore (and probably purple and blue in spots) WN tomorrow.

So much for self-sacrifice! Instead, I came back to my warm living room, got back on the couch, snuggled back under the afghan, and called my friend instead of seeing her in person. She cried on the phone instead of in person, and I simultaneously felt glad that I could be there for her, sad that I wasn't "being there" by actually, you know, being there, and glad that I was home and didn't have to go out into the cold.

So now WN has a sore back, a sore butt, and a sore hand, without actually having been the ministering angel she set out to be. They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions; in my case, it seems to have been a very icy road indeed.

Comments

[Liz]

Obviously, Jesus wanted you to stay home....

[Ancarett]

Ouch! You're very lucky not to be worse injured -- Mike broke his pinky in just that type of a fall eleven years back.

[Friday Mom]

Ooo...ouch! Why couldn't the universe conspire to reward your good intentions?

[peripateticpolarbear]

Oh poor baby.

[New Kid on the Hallway]

Oh, no! How unpleasant! I'm glad it's just soreness and nothing worse. I've been realizing how much older I am than I used to be by my increased concern when I fall down... I fell off my stepstool hanging Christmas lights - I mean, toppling full length like a fallen tree, no simple little slip - and was seriously scared for a moment that I'd do something very bad to myself. I'm not quite as old as I think I am - I was fine - but such things are scarier than they used to be! Anyway, sorry that neither you nor your friend ended up happy...