I get knocked down…

… but I get up again. The week of 1 – 7 June 2009 was quite possibly one of the worst weeks of my life, certainly of this year and so whilst I would prefer to keep this blog steered away from personal – this series of events deserves to be written down.

It started Sunday night. I have recently moved, in fact Sunday was to be my first sleep in my new house. I was hanging up curtains which I was thinking were quite spiffy when: I placed my foot on a rather small and circular poof (disappointingly small for good story telling). I was obviously over-zealous in my delivery as the next thing I knew I was on the rolled up carpet (luckily it had not been unrolled yet) experiencing the most excruciating pain I can describe.

I must share my thoughts: ok the first one started with an ‘f’, ok so did the second one, but the third pondered how it was possible to hurt myself when I was a yoga and pilates addict and so should have excellent balance and Herculean muscle strength.  The fourth thought was one of horror. You see I am about to turn 30 and while I know it is just a number, I think the whole ‘just a number’ thing only kicks in at 31 because lets face it – leaving your 20′s (forever!) is… horrifying. Was this injury the start of many as I ungracefully slide into old(ish) age?

I decided to do what I always do and revert back to my belief that I am invincible. I stood up, I fell down. Clearly the invincibility fairy leaves you when you are 29 years and 9 months old. It seems my evil new curtains had torn my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in my knee.

Ha? How the hell did that happen? Surgery? What? 3 months recovery? No gym, cycling, boarding, walking, dancing? How do I keep myself from thinking? What?

However, this was not enough to keep my admittedly strong spirit down. Life continues. Until Monday.

I returned to my new home, hobbling up the stairs and ready to give it all another shot. I lit some candles, played my favorite music and ran a bath. I walked back into the bathroom wondering why I wasn’t seeing any comforting steam on the mirrors. I felt the water; it was the temperature of the antarctic. I had forgotten to switch on the geyser. I splashed about 10% of my body and gave it up for a bad cause.

Tuesday: Round three with my home-making abilities. I was looking forward to a piping hot bath as I had personally re-checked the DB board 3 times. I ran the bath and yes it was hot. I then went downstairs to make myself my first meal to discover… I had no can-opener and for some reason the only edible food I had was hiding behind an impregnable wall of steel.

To backtrack quickly: I have been working 7 day weeks since January and I promised myself that this fateful week would see me settling into my new home and taking a breather, to reach this decision you must know that I was already teetering at the end of my emotional and mental endurance. Which is why you must understand how the lack of a can-opener reduced me to inconsolable tears. I admit my mother received a phone-call and I received home cooked take-out.

Wednesday: The obstacles had been over-come, I had bought all the missing items I needed, I had hot water and working lights AND fresh food in my fridge. I was now ready to give up on my short holiday and get back into my life. This was inaugurated with a quick blow-dry.

I had made a little stool out of cushions on the floor in front of my mirror so that my knee could be in the right position. I had music playing, the birds were joining in, I had recently enjoyed a hot shower and was soon to have great hair. Until I looked down. My hair-dryer had melted (yes I do mean melted) the carpet.

In the spirit of ‘taking time off’ I had decided to rent my house rather than have the hassle that being a home-owner brings so I must now replace this darling carpet – but wait – the carpet is one panel that includes two bedrooms and an entire staircase. Lovely.

Nevertheless – I shall continue.

Thursday: I will not wait for a male friend to help me hang up my various items. No. I will do it myself because I am capable despite not being able to stand on my right leg. Also I have an excellent memory and so when I remembered to stick a packet under the drill to reduce clean-up I was most proud of myself. Unfortunately the tape I used should not have been used and when I removed the packet I also removed half the plaster.

I hung the blinds over the hole. Problem solved because quite honestly by this stage I couldn’t care.

Just writing all this down is depressing me so I will quickly go through the rest; BMW gouged out a hole in my door panel that Moses would have been jealous of, and refused to take responsibility (perhaps because I told the manager what he could do with my car). I gave up on my wireless internet and went to buy a HSDPA to find out that there is zero coverage where I live.

I chose my unit during daylight hours because it was the most private and had one of the few full grown trees, at night I have the pleasure of a strobe light pointed directly into my bedroom door and so I must choose between: sleep-deprivation via suffocation or via blindness.

The seriously sexy white suede blinds I bought for my bedroom are utterly useless for their actual purpose. There is only network coverage in certain key points of my new house and so telephone calls have to be carefully planned. I eventually got internet to work but only when I am sitting in the far corner of the lounge.

The rails that I bought for my lounge curtains actually don’t work because the rings on the curtains won’t slide, but the rails will remain because installing them broke my knee.

Life is peachy. And just to end off my week we had a death in the family.

Before you feel sad for me I must say this; we truly are marvelous creatures. That was one shitty little week, we have lifetimes of this crap and still we find it in ourselves to smile, to have hope, to carry on, to fall in love, to create beauty, to just… get up again. I think that is pretty damn cool.

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