I'm not sure what just happened, but I am really glad that I was able to recover! As I was leaving to grab some lunch, not one, but BOTH of my heels caught the edge of the curb in front of my office building. Miraculously, I was able to avoid falling face-first on to the pavement. Such a graceful maneuver would have caused nasty scrapes embedded with asphalt on my knees, hands and my face. Very nice.
I don't know whether I should be mortified that I could be so clumsy, proud of my apparent agility and dexterity to be able to sidestep such a humiliating fall, or whether I should go on as if the whole thing never took place.
What's the fun in that? I've had some SPECTACULAR falls in public, the kind where when you see it happening to some other poor schlub, your first thought is "Damn, am I glad that's not me!"
Picture it: Borders bookstore in downtown Seattle. It is a nice spring day around noon. The streets are filled with tourists and workers alike, enjoying a decent day. Borders is packed as well. If you haven't been in the downtown store, you should know that right smack in the center of the store facing the street entrance is a large staircase that takes people to the fiction and music sections on the second floor. From the staircase, you get the grand view of all that is happening on the ground level: cash registers to the right, information desk and nonfiction to the left, periodicals in front, and best sellers lining the center aisle towards the door.
On my lunch break, I wandered the music aisles while listening to my walkman, and headed down the stairs to return to my office. About three quarters of the way down the stairs, one of my cool platform shoes caught the edge of the stair I was descending, sending me hurtling towards the floor– before I even had a nanosecond to react.
All of the sudden, I'm flying through the air in the middle of the busy store, soaring past the last four or five steps at the bottom of the staircase, and land on my hands and knees on the hard floor with a resounding crack.
Waiting for the pain to settle in, I noticed that the sounds of retail had diminished considerably as people stopped what they were doing to take in the spectacle that was me. They all had the same wide-eyed expression of amusement, pity and relief (see above). As I looked around, everyone immediately turned back to what they were doing as if I wasn't even there.
There was nothing I could do but laugh at myself. Laugh, I did...forgetting that my headphones were still intact. My laugh is already loud (and "gutsy" according to a former coworker, whatever the hell that means). I'm sure the usual crazies that wander around downtown probably went out of thier way to avoid me that day.
That's not even the best fall I've had. But I'll save that for another day.
I don't know whether I should be mortified that I could be so clumsy, proud of my apparent agility and dexterity to be able to sidestep such a humiliating fall, or whether I should go on as if the whole thing never took place.
What's the fun in that? I've had some SPECTACULAR falls in public, the kind where when you see it happening to some other poor schlub, your first thought is "Damn, am I glad that's not me!"
Picture it: Borders bookstore in downtown Seattle. It is a nice spring day around noon. The streets are filled with tourists and workers alike, enjoying a decent day. Borders is packed as well. If you haven't been in the downtown store, you should know that right smack in the center of the store facing the street entrance is a large staircase that takes people to the fiction and music sections on the second floor. From the staircase, you get the grand view of all that is happening on the ground level: cash registers to the right, information desk and nonfiction to the left, periodicals in front, and best sellers lining the center aisle towards the door.
On my lunch break, I wandered the music aisles while listening to my walkman, and headed down the stairs to return to my office. About three quarters of the way down the stairs, one of my cool platform shoes caught the edge of the stair I was descending, sending me hurtling towards the floor– before I even had a nanosecond to react.
All of the sudden, I'm flying through the air in the middle of the busy store, soaring past the last four or five steps at the bottom of the staircase, and land on my hands and knees on the hard floor with a resounding crack.
Waiting for the pain to settle in, I noticed that the sounds of retail had diminished considerably as people stopped what they were doing to take in the spectacle that was me. They all had the same wide-eyed expression of amusement, pity and relief (see above). As I looked around, everyone immediately turned back to what they were doing as if I wasn't even there.
There was nothing I could do but laugh at myself. Laugh, I did...forgetting that my headphones were still intact. My laugh is already loud (and "gutsy" according to a former coworker, whatever the hell that means). I'm sure the usual crazies that wander around downtown probably went out of thier way to avoid me that day.
That's not even the best fall I've had. But I'll save that for another day.
posted by kerrymac @ 1:06 PM
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