Through the Looking Glass…

I need to learn to slow down.
Usually when I say that, I mean metaphorically. Like “slow down” in the race of life type thing. But this time, I mean “slow down” like don’t go through doors so fast!
I’ll post more on this later, but our winter retreat, Elevate, was a blast. We had an awesome group of students from our church, and met up with 3 other churches, for a weekend of rock climbing, sphere evasion, tubing, and learning about God. The speaker was incredible, and the music was great.
I ended up spending most of my time running the random and assorted equipment, so I didn’t get to spend a whole lot of “relationship building” time until Saturday night. Nic and I were hanging out with some students in front of a fireplace in the lobby, when James decided to start a wet willy war. Obviously I couldn’t let that stand, and things ended up with him chasing me out the front door — literally.
My right arm connected with the door handle, my left arm smashed through the glass. I was outside before I heard the glass hitting the ground, and knew immediately (even though I couldn’t feel anything yet) that this wasn’t going to be good. I looked down at my arm and saw muscle — and blood pooling and splashing out around it. Most spectators panicked. All I could think about was getting the situation dealt with and my responsibilities covered for the night.
I ended up on a stretcher, getting loaded into an ambulance — I’m told I was still shouting instructions even as they drove me off to the hospital. Fortunately James was along, with a very small cut, to keep me company.
I have one wound on the top of my arm stitched up, and 3 gashes on my under-arm with gel-foam in them to help them heal — they were too wide to be sutured. I lost some blood, because I just grazed an artery, but it obviously could have been worse. I was on morphine for most of the rest of the evening, but the pain is manageable enough now that I just need anti-biotics and a daily wound check for the rest of the week.
Better stuff happened this week, but I’ll blog about that later. Until then, enjoy this picture of my bloodied sneaker!