I Broke My Finger

Yep, I broke my finger and I am not happy about it. I have always prided myself on not having broken any bones or needing stitches or fillings in my teeth. When the LPN told me that it is one of those days that everyone is breaking things, I said with surprise, "Really?" And then I realized he was including me--and my heart sank and I wanted to cry. Crap!

Well, it happened during pre-game warm-up with my co-ed football team. I've played the female QB (yes, I have an arm and I can throw a tight spiral). I thought I jammed it while catching the ball with some tossing around before the game. I still played not realizing it was broken, but had a feeling something was just not right. Fortunately, it is not a finger on my throwing hand or my dominate hand. But this really sucks! It was our first game and I will probably be out for the season. And I might not be able to play kickball or possibly run in the half-marathon! I have an appointment with the specialist tomorrow and will find out more. But I am so upset because I had a lot of fun plans for the spring.

So as I was sitting in the ER, I asked the doctor how long it would take to recover. He laughed because I was trying to negotiate to what extent I can continue my physical recreation activities. Then I was feeling overwhelmed by all of the other implications of my injury...papers to type, not getting it wet in the shower, what will be covered under my health insurance, how many more doctor visits I will have to have, how running evens out my beer consumption calorie in-take, how I will be able to blow dry my hair...you know, the important stuff. That is when the tears came and I felt silly because it is a finger, but it is my finger. And I suddenly felt very small and lonely and I realized I could really use a hug. But there was no one there to do that for me. My family is about two hours away. And I didn't feel like I could call one of my friends here to meet me at the hospital to give me a hug at 11:30 pm on a work night. I was all by myself and I was scared. The LPN told me it could be far worse, which is very true. That is a good perspective, but I needed to let myself feel a little sad and not skip over those feelings.

I texted a few people, but it was not the same as a hug. But I will be thankful for that!

Riverside Run--10K

Woohoo!!! I ran my first 10K race on Saturday and it was great! I love the sense of accomplishment after finishing a race and just feeling like you can do anything. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining and a bit of chill in the air. It was a great run along the river in downtown Pittsburgh and then along a running trail around some of the new urban living. I crossed the finish line just around 57 minutes, so that was a 9.5 minute mile pace. I am very proud of that pace, as I am continuing to train for the half-marathon, as part of the city's marathon in May.

And I have to say that I was able to share in this race experience with someone I met a few weeks ago, even though I had already planned on running in it. Actually, I met him on an airplane on my way back from Atlanta when I was visiting some very dear friends (One of those friends refers to him as Striker--as in the character from the movie Airplane.). He is really sweet and makes me laugh! I enjoy talking with him and feel like he really listens, good flow in our conversations. I guess I am hesitant to share more about him because I don't want to jinx it! But as far as the race goes, I really enjoyed running with him. Our runs in the park have been at a fairly casual pace, but he wanted to run at a faster pace for the race. It was a good push and I had a lot of fun!

Serendipity!

Okay...this story is too fabulous not to tell!

So, I was leaving Posvar Hall at Pitt and going out the doors by the escalators. I had thought about going out of the main doors on the side closer to Hillman Library, but changed my mind so that I could get just that little extra fresh air. It was absolutely beautiful and unusually warm. As I was going out, someone was coming in. We both did a double take and then reentered that in between zone of not quite being in the building and not quite being outside of the building. It was Mr. C! And he recognized me!

I had substituted at an elementary school for Pittsburgh Public last year at around this time and met Mr. C there. We both seemed to have that pause when meeting each other for the first time and stopped to talk in the office at the end of the day. He was teaching ESL and you could tell the kids loved him! And he is so hot!!!

So, we were both asking what the other was doing at Pitt at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I told him I am working on my Masters and he said he was working on his PhD. We reintroduced ourselves and he asked me what I was doing. I said nothing until class later in the afternoon--totally blowing off some reading I was going to do. He said he was just going to hang out until he had to get to some meetings. He asked me if I wanted to grab some coffee. Long story short, we ended up getting water and iced tea and walking around the Cathedral of Learning and sitting on a bench talking for an hour! We have plans to meet for dinner next week on Thursday!!!