Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Confession Wednesday: Epic Trips and Falls

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The other day, I was sitting at my new desk in the new center in the new building at work. From this vantage point, I have an excellent view of the last few steps of the staircase that leads down to our level. My coworker trips and, in a completely unfunny accident, sprained her ankle. She's fine. But it was not a pleasant day for any of us when she had to make a trip to the workman's comp clinic.

However, a day or two later, I was sitting at my desk blogging working hard. I heard someone stomping down the stairs. Suddenly, a flash of bright pink shirt whisked past my door and I knew instantly. Someone had tripped down the stairs and collapsed into a heap in the hallway. It was one of our tutors, who immediately jumped up, dusted himself off and walked through the door. I tried. I tried so hard. But I just couldn't contain the laughter. Which was okay, because neither could he.

While he went back into the hallway to pick up his pride, I started thinking about some of my more memorable trips and falls. There are a lot of them.

This is one of my favorites:

The lecture hall was two-thirds full on the morning of the Meteorology exam. I took my usual seat in the second to last row, way up high where I could pretend to care about high pressure systems and tornado warnings and all sorts of weather-related information that I actually wish I understood now.

The instructor passed out the exams.

My Utah residency had not yet been approved and I hadn't been able to find a job, so I found myself very short on funds that semester. One of the luxuries I'd had to do without was a textbook for this particular class.

(I still managed to get a C anyway. Because I'm awesome.)

Because I was unburdened by a textbook, studying for this test was quick and easy. I flipped through some class notes and called it good. So I was thoroughly prepared for the exam and finished before anyone else.

(I did NOT get the lowest score on that test, I'll have you know.)

I finished the last question on the exam, turned the pages back over and walked down the stairs to hand it in at the front of the lecture hall.

I was almost to the bottom of the stairs. Almost ready to hand in the exam and get the heck out of there. And that's when the sole of my shoe caught on something. I tried to recover, but it was too late. I rolled right down the last three steps, in front of 70 students and the professor whose radar I'd spent weeks avoiding.

Throwing the test on the desk, I dashed (carefully) back up the stairs, grabbed my backpack and made it out the back door before acknowledging that both my elbow AND my ankle REALLY hurt.

But not as much as my pride when I had to return to that class two days later.

I KNOW you've got an awesome/embarrassing/hilarious tale of tripping and falling. Please share!


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Posted by Karen Peterson
This post is: 
at 8:22 AM
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12 comments:

  1. So funny! And embarrassing. I think this is one of those things that everyone can relate to.
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  2. ha! I took a few tumbles in classrooms as well.

    A couple of weeks ago we were about 5 miles into a 10 mile run. I was cruising along and probably a little too into my music. Well, I tripped over a bump in the sidewalk and yelled a four letter word as I tried to catch myself. My earbuds fell out and I could suddenly hear laughter.

    Of course I was passing in front of a Starbucks at the time and there was a group of cyclist enjoying a post-ride coffee. I gave them quite the show in my running skirt. :)
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  3. It probably won't surprise you to learn that I've taken quite a few spills in my day.

    It's always worse when there's an audience though!
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  4. I'm usually not one to laugh when people fall, probably because I've done it myself so many times and it's not funny! Well . . . except one time, when I was trying to cross an icy parking lot and I fell in front of this car that was waiting for me to get across, and then I literally could not get up. It was so slick that I kept losing my footing and falling again. The guy in the car was just cracking up, and finally I did, too, it was just so RIDICULOUS!
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  5. te he he. First off, I'm so jealous you have the seat you have becasue that would be the higlight to my day. Second, classy fall! It made me giggle.
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  6. Hmmm...do you want to know about the time I fell on my face in front of the entire 8th grade class on our field trip?

    Or the time I fell walking out of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf thinking I was super cool drinking where the celebs drink in LA?
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  7. So funny! I don't think I have one that can top that, but I did fall backwards when I was bowling on a first date. (It also ended up being our last date.)
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  8. I fell outside our building where the pavement is uneven on the sidewalk. I just scratched myself up a little. A couple of months later a woman fell and busted her lip and dislocated one of her front teeth. She filed workman's comp. Someone else fell a few months after that. I mentioned that someone might want to make that pavement even but I was ignored...so I guess if someone sues someday, at least I did my part to warn them!
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  9. My friends still make fun of me by saying "click, click, boom" in reference to an unfortunate fall in a gas station one Halloween when I thought I'd be able to sport 6 inch hooker heels.

    Also, I once just fell on my a$$ walking through the mall with NotDonna and her little sister. Just walking. I didn't trip or slip or anything, my knee just went funny, and down I went, slowly. It was hilarious.

    I fall alot.
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  10. I know I've had many such moments, but I suppressed them!
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  11. I fell going down the steps at college. I was leaving class and about to exit the building. I was on the 3rd step from the bottom and somehow managed to miss the last 2. Two of my friends were with me. They laughed. I laughed. They made sure I was all right. (As luck would have it, I had the worst swollen ankle ever from this fall.) The hall was quiet so I stood up thinking no one else saw. That is until I heard a guy from the landing above yell out really loud....

    DAAAAAAAAAMN!
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  12. My most embarrassing fall happened at a movie theater. I finally worked up the nerve to go see a movie by myself. I wanted to see the Notebook, but I had just broken up with a guy and none of my girlfriends would see it with me. So anyway, at this particular theater you enter the room at the top of the stadium style seating. I walked in and it was jam packed with couples. I felt so glaringly out of place without a date so I decided to go sit in the front all by myself. As I descended the lights dimmed for a second and then came back on, but it was just enough time for me to lose my footing. The worst part was that I was holding onto the handrail but it was like once I started falling I couldn't stop. It was a slow fall too. I ended up splayed out face-down over several steps with my head down at the bottom and my feet at the top. I could hear people snickering. I had a hard time getting up too because my feet were higher than my head. In the end I hunkered down on the front row and tried to enjoy the movie but just ended up depressed because I was such a klutz.
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"You know what they say. If you don't have anything nice to say about anybody, come sit by me."

~Clairee Belcher, Steel Magnolias

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