One wintry day during sophomore year of college I was walking to Principles of Accounting II. I was wearing flats. They were really cute with pointy toes and shiny black leather. Very stylin'. On the way to Riley Hall there is a giant hill with a railing on one side, which unfortunately was not the side I was walking on. It was icy. My shoes had zero traction. You do the math. Much to my dismay there was a cute boy in my class who was walking behind me and I'm sure saw the whole thing. He never commented...but how could you miss that? My jeans were wet all through class and my tush hurt like none other. As it turned out I bruised my tailbone and couldn't walk normally for a while. All because of a cute pair of shoes. I was afraid to walk down that hill for the next two years. I would grab my roommate's arm and skid down the whole thing on nice, practical shoes (or so I thought...see next story.)
Note: The hill is no longer an issue. The campus was remodeled last summer and the hill blown to bits. I'm sure I'll find somewhere else to fall now that the hill has been taken away from me.
The Sidewalk
It was spring of junior year. The sidewalk was slushy. Since my fall the previous winter I had been wearing trusty old Docs anytime there was snow, ice, or the remote chance of falling down. My Docs weren't the greatest of winter shoes. (I still don't understand this; they seem so sturdy! I would frequently slip and slide my way down that evil hill.) I was on my way to my on-campus job with the Education Department in a building about a 7 minute walk from my dorm. It is sidewalk the whole way except for a crosswalk across the main road. At the crosswalk the sidewalk slopes down to be level with the road. It was the slope that got me. And the slush. My backpack took the brunt of the fall, but I was still wet all through work. And, great news, someone was watching me. I'm sure they were laughing.
The Pants
Yes, I tripped on my pants. I was at work at the bank, wearing light brown dress pants with huge cuffs on the bottom. They were so cute. I had on brown heeled sandals. The cuffs weren't sewn completely to the pants, just stitched on the side seams. I was walking behind the teller counter when my heel got caught on the cuff of my pants (I actually stepped INTO the cuff) and I fell flat on my face. My coworkers laughed. Fortunately there were no customers. While I had nearly fallen many times due to these pants, I had never actually ended up on the floor. You would like I would have learned before it was too late.
The Stairs
My bedroom has been in the basement at my mom's house since I turned 13 and my parents (jokingly) told me I could have it if I cleaned it. Boy were they surprised. The stairs going down to the basement have been in the house since it was built. They are old, rickety, rough board wooden stairs that frequently give slivers to whomever is walking on them. I don't like these stairs. I was wearing the same brown dress pants with the cuffs and the heeled sandals. And, like the time I fell at work, I stepped into the cuff. Only it was ten times worse falling down the stairs than on the carpeted floor at work. I was about halfway down when I tripped, went to my knees, and slid on them the entire way down to the concrete basement floor. It hurt. A lot.
The Mountain
That's right. MOUNTAIN. We were vacationing at Rocky Mountain National Park with some family friends. All the adults wanted to go on a 10 mile hike to see Sky Pond (plus Mills, The Loch, and Lake of Glass), which has an elevation gain of 1,440 feet and includes climbing a waterfall near the end. Yes, I said climbing a waterfall. At 10,620 feet elevation, no less. Talk about your breathing problems. Sky Pond is above the treeline and since we were there in June, there was still quite a bit of snow. And when I say quite a bit I mean if you stepped off the path you'd be up to your knees. But I survived the hike up there. It was the hike down that got me.
I've included a picture of Sky Pond for your enjoyment. Disclaimer: This is not my photo.
This picture is taken from Sky Pond looking back towards Lake of Glass. If you look very closely, you can see that the lake just drops off into the horizon. That would be the waterfall.
And here you can see a lovely picture someone took of the climb up the waterfall to Lake of Glass. Yes, there is a person in there. Doesn't this look like fun at 10,000 feet after hiking 4.7 miles? Uphill? In the snow?
Moving on...we were hiking back down the mountain on a one-foot wide trail in the snow. The slope was probably about 45 degrees. So it wasn't life-or-death steep, but you definitely didn't want to go down it. Allow me to reiterate: you DO NOT want to fall down the mountain. Because if you do, you will get a crapload of snow up your shorts and you will scream the whole way down until you crash into a pile of rocks at the bottom and everyone will laugh at you. Just to be clear. So don't do it.
I'm glad we got that all cleared up.
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