You never know how much you need a toe, until you have a toe no mo’. That was a po. em. :)

I have a gift. Its called “I am gifted at doing things that make my life more complicated.” It makes for good stories, good laughs, but its a bit rough in the meantime. Right now, mostly inconvenient.

How I wish I could say that I had broken my toe saving a kitten from a burning tree, or fighting off criminals from stealing an old lady’s purse, or climbing up Mt. Kilimanjaro.

But…not really.

The story is: I teach junior high and went to the girls’ soccer game, and came back home, walked in the door, the door hadn’t even swung shut, when I dropped a full metal water bottle off a counter and directly onto my bare big toe. This might not sound like a big deal. But oh, oh it was. Take a ten pound weight, hold it up at four feet, drop it on your big toe. And there it is.

I am the first to admit I have a somewhat tiny pain threshold. I have gotten tougher as I’ve gotten older, but I have always been and always will be preparing for my next dramatic role. But I just turned 27, and with this age comes a new maturity. Maybe.

Looking back, I’m most impressed that when it happened, I didn’t say a single swear word. I grabbed my foot and said “owie owie owie!” over and over, and tried to not cry. I eventually started crying, grabbed a bag of frozen corn, and wrapped it around my toe, and debated a hospital trip.

The thing was, my best friend Jess is getting married in two weeks, and has had a seriously terrible maid of honor. I am a bridesmaid, recently promoted to maid of honor, because of this girl’s flakiness. Jess had a dress fitting appt. in San Ramon at 615, so I decided to man (or maid) up, and go to the appt. Well, it was rush hour, and an accident, so I drove for an hour to get to the appt, which was really kinda pointless, as all I was shown was how to loop thread onto a button. So after that, we ordered burritos from Los Panchos, I called advice nurse and she advised me to go into the hospital.

This is the first big injury I’ve had as a grown up. It was kinda weird to drive myself to the hospital, run a red light, realize how far I had parked from the elevator, hobble bare foot to the clinic, check myself in, hold the ice pack on my foot, realize how underdressed and hungry I was. Even at 27, when you’re hurt, you still want your mom there.

My mom finally came with slippers and sweatshirt and helped guide me around the terrible setup that is Walnut Creek Kaiser. I ended up with a boot on my foot, which hasn’t stopped my junior high students from stepping on my toe (twice) and kicking me, or myself from kicking it against a desk. If I would have taken the crutches they offered, at least I could have beat the offending students away.

This whole thing makes me think about the body of Christ. We might think some parts are dispensable, but without the big toe of your church or your circle of friends, everything is out of balance. Other parts have to work too hard, and they get grumpy. Everyone is equally important when it comes to creating balance and working for the greater good. I was a whole mini-sermon.

So now I have a boot, and some vicodin, and lots of middle school sized sympathy. But the show must go on. :)

Tomorrow the show includes a Giants game with the whole family, celebrating my sister taking the MCATs. Super excited!!! And i get to ride an elevator, due to the boot, so…that is awesome.

Alright. I wrote a blog. Night night.