Watch Where You Are Going, Literally

I wear glasses. No secret there. I don't wear contact lenses that will fake out people who don't know me into thinking I have perfect vision. That being said, I do expect my glasses to make up for my deficiency of sight.

Alas, I suppose I also have to pay attention to where I am walking while I wear my glasses. That is a lesson I learned this morning.

Christy, meet the steel pole. Why Mr. Pole, I didn't even see you there!

I set off on my walk this morning, excited about the blue sky here in Victoria, BC. I brought along my camera to document the sights I saw along the way.

Stepping out the front door of my condo building, I proceeded to take my camera out of its fabric pouch to begin snapping pictures. Yes, I looked ahead as I walked. That being said, I failed to maintain a steady gaze.

I hadn't even left the parking lot of my condo complex when the intersection between pole and forehead was met. That's right, my feet had not yet made contact with the road pavement. A different kind of contact was made first.

Here's an equation I learned today:

Look down + Christy = Make contact with steel pole using forehead

Immediately I felt a bump on my forehead and the skin was tender. I delicately felt it and my head began to throb. Yet I didn't let this deter me from my walk.

I believe the phrase "suck it up" could fit into this topic well. I refused to miss out on a sunny day because of my "oops" moment. Blue sky doesn't come every day in February.

We have a guarantee of today, but tomorrow is less concrete. Make use of our day, our present day. Who knows how much longer we will have?

While my forehead was tender, I put the situation into perspective. I had not passed out and I did not need stitches. My legs were wobbly but certainly still in good enough shape for some exercise. I continued on, not to be put off my goal of taking a walk and snapping a few photos along the way.

Thirty minutes later I returned to my condo. There were steps to be taken at home:

• Take a look at the wound
• Take an Advil to help with my headache
• Apply a cold compress to my forehead to help reduce the swelling

The Double-Take

I did a double-take when I looked in the bathroom mirror.

Dried blood was smeared across my forehead. The top layer of skin was folded to the side of the gash. I applied a towel wet with warm water gently to my forehead. The soak was followed by a band-aid.

Color me geeky-looking. A band-aid across my forehead. Again Christy, deep breath and put all into perspective. It is laughable and I have been through worse.

Much worse.

I can laugh at myself. I'm still in tact. Now, where did I put that cold pack...