M: i am.

on the ride home from st. george yesterday, this song came on my ipod and it got me to remembering one of the most outstanding moments in one voice practice history.

hannah and i were supposed to sing that song at a relief society meeting that night, but i had one voice practice so i left her to do it herself. [apparently, the following story is karma because i made her sing alone.]

we were practicing our dance for the newsies number that night, and since i had been in the choir previously when we performed newsies, i was in charge of teaching a group of about 8 choir members part of the dance. we went up in the attic and, since we were so far away from the stage, we couldn't hear when they called for us to come back.  when we finally realized we had stayed away too long, we started rushing down the stairs and i was first in line.  halfway down the stairs, i flipped off the light because i thought the last person in line would forget. as soon as i flipped the lights off, i was met by a chorus of "hey! it's dark!" and "turn on the lights! we can't see!" i just laughed and told them to grow up.  walking down stairs isn't hard.

right at that exact moment, i ate it. hard. now, these stairs are the kind of stairs that turn. so... when i fell, i hit a pretty solid wall. with my left knee. julia fell on top of me [and might have even peed a little], and riley fell on top of her, all of us laughing like crazy. it didn't hurt. we heard the directors yelling, so we all jumped up and ran on stage, ready to practice.  it wasn't until i looked down and saw all the blood that my knee started to sting a little.

[this was after it had been cleaned up. i don't wanna disgust anyone with fresh wounds.]

it was at this point where the freak out began. directors, choir members, and dance instructors began swarming me like i was dying... i was still laughing. there was talk of stitches, but i blew it off, not thinking they were serious.  i tried to keep dancing, but my parents showed up.

off to the hospital we go!

so, we picked up hannah and went to wait in the emergency room.  i was really confused because i still didn't hurt very much.  there were people in the ER with bawling babies, insane coughs, or ridiculous head wounds, and i was just there for a measly scratch on my knee.  i tried convincing my mom we could just go home, but she wasn't buying it. so we waited. and waiiiiiited.

finally, doc smith came to get me... which is when i realized how much i hurt myself.  it wasn't a just a scratch. my whole knee had popped open. it was a gaping hole of sorts. apparently i hit the wall with enough force to literally just pop the skin open. who knew that was even possible?

before they stitched me up, the doctor said i would have to get an x-ray because if it hit the wall hard enough to pop my knee open, my knee cap was most likely fractured. luckily, they couldn't find anything [even though i think they overlooked something because i have awful knee problems to this day] but i still had to get 7 stitches.

they were my first stitches and i'm enthralled by needles, so of course i recorded the whole thing. it was one of the most intriguing moments of my life. (:

the stitches in my knee made it difficult to dance in one voice, which sucked because it was just a few weeks before tour.  there were a couple of times where i worked the stitches too hard and ended up bleeding all over. luckily, a couple weeks before tour i convinced my dad to help me take out the stitches and i was able to dance just fine. i just have a wicked scar.

now, i learned a few life lessons from this experience. first, always listen to people who are going down stairs in the dark. second, don't be near julia when she is laughing or she might urinate on you. third, it's always best to laugh when you embarrass yourself. and last, but definitely not least, never ditch hannah.