Colossally Stupid or Colossally Clumsy

I am leaving my house at 4:45 a.m. Wednesday morning. ?I have to be at the “rendezvous point” at 5:00 in. the. morning. ?I didn’t even know there was a 5:00 in the morning in the Summer… let alone a 4:00 in the morning (the time in which I have to get up to shower and finish packing).

This China trip is turning into something akin to going to Russia for 3 1/2 weeks. ?Only difference is that I’m going by mah self and I’m not bringing home a child… I’m bringing home 3 (hopefully)!! ?Whee! ?Only they are teenagers and not mine and I have to return them to their parents and hopefully I don’t lose anyone. ?Although, we are visiting an orphanage while we are there… I did always want a girl.

Everything leading up to the trip has gone very smoothly. ?Fundraising was fairly easy, I’ve paid all of my money, there was the little hiccup where my Visa got denied, but I got that fixed and all is good. ?Something had to go wrong. ?It is me after-all and no long term overseas trip is without its follies in my world. ?Oh wait, I know. ?There is record flooding in the province we are supposed to be going to. ?Then we found out yesterday that the guy who is supposed to be our guide and who has arranged this whole trip isn’t in China anymore (where he is supposed to be waiting for us to arrive). ?Nope. ?He is here. ?In the states. ?At the bedside of is critically ill wife. ?It isn’t stopping our trip. ?There are other people involved in leading us around. ?Only we haven’t met any of them and we are all worried about our guide’s wife… and our guide. ?This news came second hand and we are working today on getting the whole story.

Then there was Wednesday where I thought, “gee it sure is hot outside. ?I think I’ll wear my flip flops to work.” ?My flip flops that are very smooth on the bottom. ?In the place where I work that I could potentially roll a plant rack over my food (which I did) or drop something on my foot (which I did not do) or I could slip on wet pavement (which I did in spectacular fashion).

In what looked like an episode of Keystone Cops I tried to break my leg when I kicked over a watering can and then as I was going to clean up the mess I slid on the pavement, tried to catch myself and then slid with the other foot square into a planter of flowers. ?I thought the only thing that would happen was that I would have a bruise on my knee where I hit my leg. ?Oh it is much worse than that. ?By Wednesday night my back was fairly sore, but on Thursday my back was screaming. ?I, of course, had to work and, of course, we had 5 deliveries of various nursery related material (that included flats of plants sitting on the ground that had to be picked up and large plants that had to be unloaded from a truck). ?Needless to say I went to bed high on muscle relaxers and codine. ?I was great Friday morning. ?I was fine on Saturday even after standing all day. ?Then on Sunday I had the audacity to plug in the iron. ?The damn iron did me in. ?I felt a catch in my back and thought I was going to cry.

I spent part of the day yesterday in bed and then in the pool (hoping floating might relieve the pressure). ?A little bit… maybe. ?I think it was more muscle relaxers that did the trick (good thing I bonked my head or I wouldn’t have those). ?This morning I’m mostly ok, but I know if ?I move wrong it will start all over again. ?Why is this a bad thing? ?Oh I don’t know… only something about an 11 hour plane ride on Wednesday, long bus rides later this week and long train rides on cramped bunks. ?No biggie.