wandering sails

pain.

i'm wounded. and it stings. perhaps i should have prefaced that with the fact that i have a rather high tolerance for pain. but today, i wince.

i ate alone again today. don't feel bad for me-it's really okay. it's not that people don't like me, they just ate elsewhere. besides, i eat two-thirds of my meals alone, so i like the solitude. but that's not why i'm wounded. it's related, but not the cause. when i eat alone, it doesn't take as long because i don't talk as much and i decided to take the second half of my lunch and explore trails that someone had told me were out there on the grounds. i grabbed my camera and headed out. i walked for a few minutes and then i seemed to run out of trail. i didn't know where else to go, so i decided to blaze a trail (this is along the same line of thinking that had me mowing my yard in a skirt). so, i walked carefully through the thorny plants and dried grass until i encountered a fallen tree. the part of the tree that covered my path was near the top. the branches were everywhere and not small enough just to break off. did that deter me? it should have. a skirt and mary janes are not necessarily prime scrambling-over-a-tree shoes. but no, of course it didn't deter me. i had seen somewhere i wanted to be with my camera and so i stood up on the biggest branch available and set my camera down towards the other side of the tree. i stood there for a moment before i decided that i should jump over the rest of the branches. great plan. it would have worked. it should have. if that branch hadn't shot up when i jumped off of the other one. since i lead with my right leg when jumping, that was the shin that caught the branch first. i was able to swing my left leg up and around to avoid the obstacle and land with that foot, turn around and get my right leg up and over before i face-planted in the middle of some rather prickly-looking plants. i brushed the debris off my pride, picked up my camera and meandered along my non-existent path. only when i was back on an actual path did i realize how badly torn my leg was. well, how badly scratched it was. it did swell up a bit. even now, the pain has subsided considerably and i'm sure i'm just being a wuss about it all, but it hurt. and i'm really glad it was my leg and not my face. and that the dress i have to wear for my brother's wedding on saturday is long.

the really sad thing about it all, is that i didn't even take a picture. not one. after the debacle with the tree, i had a really hard time thinking the destination was worth it. the weeds were getting thicker and the ground soggier. in the better interest of my shoes, i decided to head back to civilization. on a different trail.

posted by julie @ 2:23 PM