Knee Jerk

As my friend just pointed out to me, it's been two months since my last entry.  I chuckled when I remembered that my last post was titled Looking Up.  Well, while I was so busy looking up last month, I completely forgot about looking down and when Mercy suddenly lunged for An Extremely Important and Invisible Thing, I (being still attached to the leash while gazing at the stars for a long enough period of time to forget that we were actually out for the nighttime piddle) was jerked back towards earth, crashing down to the ground, and twisting my right knee enough to do some damage.  Alas, a trip to the ER yielded a pair of crutches along with a referral to the orthopedic surgeon for a possible torn whatchamacallit--a situation which I felt could wait until the semester ended, just two weeks later.  In spite of my knee discomfort, 'two weeks later' became 'three weeks plus one trip to Manhattan later' because, well, the title of this post says it all.

I became quite proficient with crutches, or perhaps more accurately, getting people to do things for me.  My boss brought me my coffee.  She and numerous other colleagues (I managed a whole fleet) carried my lunch plate AND cleaned it up in the dining hall.  Students ran ahead to open doors.  I had rides to and from work, door to door.  I got to sit wherever I wanted needed and lounge my leg in any direction that I wanted to claim as My Space.  Pat (a manly man with a beard and tattoo) carried my purse and my knitting when I needed to run errands. Meredith vacuumed the floors.  I gave directives. It was wonderful. It was quite a feat.

I am now in line for the MRI followed by the repair work.  With the semester now over I can take it a bit more easy.  I hope to resume my writing on a more regular basis--I have some things rattling 'round my head. And perhaps in between the cups of coffee I will now be pouring for myself, I need to work on teaching Mercy about The Art of Not Lunging (otherwise known as How to Avoid a Knee Jerk's Reaction).