Fall down go boom!

Yep, that's what I did last night.

It all started when I was fussing with the baby gate at the bottom of our stairs, before bed. Branden told me to go on upstairs and he'd put it up. The gate is there to keep the dogs out...otherwise Jock will peruse the litterbox for treats, and Pepper has been injuring himself going down the stairs (such steep steps are hard on a basset hound's short little legs). Anywho, Branden got the gate up, and we went upstairs. Then I realized that the heater was still turned up, and since heat rises, the upstairs area is always around 10 degrees warmer than downstairs. So I headed down the steps to adjust the thermostat. It was dark, and I wasn't really watching where I was going. I got to the gate, and swung my leg over as I usually do. Except this time, the gate was up higher than normal - right up against the bottom step. So the ground was much further away, and I lost my balance and pitched forward - way forward. Faceplant onto the (fortunately carpeted) landing. OUCH!!!!!! Pain, oh the pain. I landed on my right arm...so hat part is pretty sore. And twisted at the waist...so my lower back, especially on the left side...that part hurts a bunch too. I feel all kinds of sore, like you would the day after an auto accident. Ugh.

Branden was great...he immediately ran down to check on me, and helped me back upstairs before he went to fix the thermostat. He called this morning to check on me. And his co-workers even got me a get well soon card, signed by several of his fellow officers, and a box of chocolates. So sweet!! It was exactly what I needed after a very stressful day at work. I won't go into the details of it here. I'll just say, I miss the old days at the DWS, where I had autonomy to work on projects myself and I didn't feel like such a drone. Where my opinion actually counted for something. I cry a lot, I'll admit...but not often at work. Today, I did just that. Thank goodness my awesome work-buddy Julia was there to help out! We went out and had greasy hamburgers at Hunky's for lunch. It's amazing what a little fattening food will do! Afternoon at work wasn't much better, so it was great to come home to the card, the chocolates, and my wonderful husband, who took me out to dinner at Jason's Deli before heading off to class. I'm now hanging out in bed with my computer in my lap, my cat next to me, the dogs hanging out at my feet (yeah, I let them upstairs...just this once!) and LOTR: The Two Towers on the DVD player. Nice, relaxing evening. In fact, I think I'll go pay more attention to the movie now...and work on feeling better.