I almost always eat an exciting breakfast after I get to work. Today I had can of artichoke hearts from Trader Joe's, followed by some Chex Mix and hot sauce, a cup of microwavable Mac N Cheese, and 2 gummy vitamins. I drank glass after glass of refreshing water, improving the taste by adding slices of my Mom's Meyers lemons. By the time noon rolled around, I was ready for a bathroom break!
Our building has a men's and women's restroom on each of the four floors that is shared by all of the offices on that floor. It gets restocked and picked up every afternoon and thoroughly cleaned in the evenings. It's always felt super clean to me and a lot of times I don't even use a toilet seat cover. Yes, it's that clean in there!
Being clean still doesn't mean you want to spend a lot of time on a bathroom floor. But just as I entered the door to our ladies room, my feet hit a small puddle of water and completely went out from under me. I have never fallen so hard in my life. My knee and wrist connected first and my hip and shoulder hit the floor less than a second later. I laid there stunned! Stunned by the shooting pain, stunned by the speed I went down and how fast it had happened, and stunned that I could actually move and seemingly nothing was broken. I didn't hit my teeth or my head so that was good. But I did hit my entire left side, and 150 pounds of Amy smashing onto one side really emphasized the extra 20 pounds I've put on since my wedding two years ago. But perhaps it was some extra cushioning too? I'm alright with extra cushioning if it's going to break my falls. Is this what getting old is like? You start falling down and getting hurt?!
A couple of hours went by and I can really feel the fall through my shoulder and hip and a little bit at my lower neck. I have a headache. I've taken 6 Excedrin and 4 Aleve. What's tomorrow going to feel like? I reported it to our nice building manager upon the insistence of my boss. I really don't feel like a wet floor is all that unexpected or unreasonable in a community bathroom. Some people need life to be a series of "Caution: Wet Floor!" warnings, because should they slip and fall and there's was no warning, it's obviously someone else's fault. But I don't want to see "Cuidado! Piso Mojado!" everywhere I go. I think people have an obligation to look out for themselves. If you see a wet floor, dry it, or alert someone. Step carefully! I thoroughly dried the floor in our restroom. Partly with my body, but finished it up with some paper towels.
I wonder how many people fell down around the world today, and how many of those people immediately looked up the definition of negligence to see if it was someone else's fault. I don't need to look up anything to do with slip-and-falls because I work for a terrific Personal Injury attorney. Sometimes a fall is just a fall (but don't tell that to an attorney). But sometimes there are dangerous situations. To be fair to me, I wasn't in a hurry when I entered, I am pretty agile, and I was wearing tennis shoes with a good, solid sole... Plus I was completely sober! Maybe some other Amy in New Orleans also fell down on a wet bathroom floor today after one too many lunchtime Mardi Gras libations. Hope she was as cool about it as I was. Happy Fat Tuesday to my NOLA doppleganger and me, and well-wishes for my speedy recovery.
