Just put me in a padded suit

Day 11: What is the worst injury you have ever had?

If you know me, you know that I am the world's most graceful person and I don't get injuries like tripping at the park when I was nine and having a piece of glass protruding out my arm.  Or, when I went through a barbed wire fence when I was 12 and had huge gashes on my arms.  Or, the time I fell out of a slow moving pickup on a gravel road (I still swear my brother pushed me) and have a lovely scar on my foot because of that.  My recent injuries include the whole tripping with food and hitting my head and giving myself whiplash; and two days later opened a door with my foot being directly behind it and the door swinging closed and hitting me in the head for a second time.  That one hurt worse that the whiplash one because it was the corner of the door on my temple and it reallllly hurt.  Yesterday the case that holds our drill fell down my leg and now I have a lovely bruise and scrape on my leg (my husband is ready to wrap me in bubble wrap and put a helmet on my head).  With all of those injuries nothing compared to the two I am going to tell you now.

First one: I was seven.  I was in second grade.  It was winter and my baby sitter was dropping me and my brother off at school.  I go to shut the door and I shut the glove in the door.  The car started taking off and I am screaming for her to stop.  We get about 15 feet and a teacher finally helps me.  I get my glove out of the door and they ask me if my finger felt okay.  I said sure, but they wanted to check it just in case.  It's a good thing they did.  When we pulled my glove off, the finger nail was completely off the nail and it was raised by blood.  We went to the hospital and they took xrays.  I had broken my finger in two places and I had to have 6 stitches in my nail bed.  OUCH!!  I can still remember the pain of those stitches coming out.  I didn't get a real cast, I just had to wear one of those finger splints because of the appendage that was broken.  It was my middle finger and I was walking around flipping people off for 3 weeks.  In all of my seven year old mine, I was a rebel because I was using the "naughty" finger.  This is the only bone I have broken (knock on wood).

Second one: I was 15.  I was in 9th grade.  This happened in May about a week before school let out.  I went out to my mom's house.  They live in a rural town.  We went over to some of our family friends' house to ride some of their horses.  I had only been on a horse a few other times in my life.  I got on this horse and I am sitting there minding my own business.  This goat comes out of no where and spooks the horse.  The horse rared up and threw me on to a pile of wood.  The horse then lands on top of me.  I make a trip to the emergency because I have some nasty looking stuff coming out of my knee.  We spent five hours in the emergency waiting room and finally got called back.  I had displaced my knee cap and had fat and tissue coming out of it.  I had 15 stitches in my knee and a lovely knee brace.  My school was two stories.  My teachers had to let me out of class a few minutes early so I could get down the stairs before the masses hit.  I still have to wear a knee brace sometimes when I walk long distances and I have had arthritis in the knee since then as well.

Those are my two worst injuries.  Remind me to later tell you how I pulled every ligament in my wrist falling out of bed.  That happened a couple of years ago.  I also have scars in both my eyebrows from playing football with my cousins.  I guess I should check into a padded suit and helmet.

Photo Day 11: Black and White  I LOVE black and white!!  Especially of really cool unique stuff that has a lot of detail that emerges when you take all the color out.  Here are a couple of shots from Philadelphia last year.

A cell block at the Eastern State Penitentiary.  What a great place to take photos.  I have tons from there.

The Ben Franklin Bridge in Philly.  We were at the top of the City Hall building when I took this shot! My husband has a large copy of this framed at his work.  People are constantly asking him about it.  

Here is a black and white with a pop of red.  The building in the background is the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Yes, we ran up the stairs Rocky style.  

Paula's July Blog Challenge

Headed to the Great Wolf Lodge and, more importantly, Ikea.  So, it will take me a couple of days to catch up with all your blogs...again (hangs head in shame).