No Good Deed Goes Unpunished...

Friday afternoon, Michael and I were sitting on the sofa watching TV... both of us were nodding of and ready to take a nap. Suddenly, I heard the dogs barking in the backyard and went to see what was upsetting them. When I looked out the window, I saw my neighbor, Janice, standing on her sundeck on top of a ladder. She had a big rope in one hand, and she was trying to throw it over a tree limb. My first thought was "she's going to hang herself!". I went outside to investigate-- it turned out that Janice wasn't suicidal. There was a huge limb that was hanging off of her 100-year-old oak tree. It had snapped away from the trunk, gut was still holding on. I decided to help her out, because the method she was using wasn't paying off. I stood on her porch and grabbed hold of this 50' limb and started swinging it back and forth. After a few swings, the limb came crashing down and landed on me. When I got out from under the limb, I realized that I was bleeding. The limb had crashed against my face, and ripped my bottom lip and chin open in the process. Janice got me a paper towel to hold against the cut. When I came home, I sent straight to the bathroom mirror to take a look-- I saw a huge gash on my lower face. The paper towel was covered in blood and the flow wasn't stopping. Michael was asleep on the sofa. Bear in mind that I had only been away for about 5 minutes-- so when I woke Michael up and said "Baby, we need to go to the hospital", he was a little shocked. What could I have possibly done in the past 5 minutes that caused me to be bleeding like they do in horror films??

We headed over to South Fulton Hospital, where they stitched me up and sent me home. Michael stayed in the ER with me the whole time and was a huge help in keeping me calm. He even called me his "brave little soldier" afterwards! The doctor told me that I should try to avoid talking much in the next 24 hours... not a possiblilty since this weekend was the Candler Park Festival and I was scheduled to spend over 12 hours per day talking to the public.

My biggest worry was that we had tickets to see "Wicked" at the Fabulous Fox. The whole time I was in ER, all I could think about was "will we get out of ER in time for our dinner reservations? Will I look like the "Phantom of the Opera" if I am able to go to "Wicked"? How will I get through the next two days at the Festival, looking like I had recently attended a bar room brawl?

The stitched came out fine--- we made the dinner and the play... all's well that ends well, I guess!

Included in this post are pictures from the Candler Park Fallfest (my new tent, and my new assistants, Ryan & Kara), "Wicked" (with Marie and Madeline) and, of course, my hospital armband!