Fiasco, in the truest sense of the word

I "twat" (props to a girl in one of my classes for coining that past tense of the verb "to tweet") yesterday that Matt and I were about to play some tennis. Well, it's really too bad that I don't have text messaging on my phone because it would have given me the perfect opportunity to tweet away from the computer... Let me explain.

We got out on the courts for the first time in many, many years and started whacking the ball over one another's heads and into the net, anywhere but towards each other. One escaped over the side fence, and many veered off-course towards the next court over. Basically, we sucked. It felt so great to be out there running around that we didn't really care how ridiculous we looked. But I will be happy when we can finally hit the ball back and forth multiple times with a good amount of control. We really can't control what direction the ball goes in at this point. Aside from all the extra running around and looking foolish, that wouldn't be all that bad of a thing in most cases, right?

But about 10 minutes into our antics, I hit the ball kind of hard off to one side. Being the man he is, Matt ran after it to wildly whack the ball back in my direction. In the process, he tripped over one of his Non Tennis Playing Approved Shoes, and smacked sidelong into the fence. It would have been mildly funny had he not given me The Look.

**Side note: One of the things I love about me and Matt is our understanding of each other when The Look is tossed in. It's the "No seriously. I'm not kidding. Stop tickling me right now, I'm having an asthma attack" Look. It's also the "No seriously. I'm not kidding. I'm seriously hurt right now" Look. Two situations could be identical to an outsider, but if one situation includes The Look, we spring into Life Saving Action Mode.**

From across the court, there is this ball coming perfectly at me and behind it, Matt slamming into the fence. All in a split second, I'm about to hit the ball back, praying it'll just make it over the net when Matt collapses in a pile at the bottom of the fence. I yell, "Are you okay?" and in response get The Look. Catching the ball (how did I do that?), I run around the net to help him up and when he turns his head see what looks like a little cut on his ear beginning to ooze blood.

"Is it bad?"

"No, it's just a little cut" (I lie to both of us). "Put your hand over it and let's go inside."

I grabbed his discarded sunglasses, both our rackets, and the balls and raced up the steps inside. I tried to find cotton balls (to no avail) and some hydrogen peroxide when from the bathroom, I heard, "I think we need to go to the emergency room."

I took one look at the injury up close and saw a slice in his helix about 1/4 inch deep.

And then I knew I wouldn't be able to drive for a couple minutes. While I sat down with my head between my knees trying to calm the dizzies and get rid of the dark spots, Matt searched for his wallet, all the while cupping his hand full of tissues over his ear.

We made it to the Urgent Care facility across town pretty quickly and I filled out all Matt's medical forms while we waited for 10 minutes as one of two couples in the waiting room. Matt was all macho about the incident, describing it as "a run-in with a fence" and a "tennis accident" to the nurses and doctor. I went back to the examination room with him to keep him company and we had fun reading the white-board walls where some nurses had taken notes about first aid procedures. Shouldn't they know all about the ABCs of first aid and the steps for treating shock before working there? The one I found most interesting was the "3 impacts of motor vehicle accidents: 1. car hits tree, 2. body hits car, 3. organs hit body."

When the doctor finally arrived, she looked very closely at his ear for some time before saying, "It's not too bad. Only the flesh is torn, no cartilage damage. One suture should do it. The only problem is.........." She sat quietly mulling it over for a while, then went on "If I numb the area of the ear, it'll numb the entire side of your head." She finally decided to give him two injections in the helix to numb the immediate area, then gave him two sutures. Two injections and two sutures! He laughed about getting two pokes in the ear so he wouldn't feel it when he got two more pokes in the ear. But at least it helped with the pain of the original injury.

She wants to see him on Tuesday to check for "infection and necrosis." WHAT? Necrosis? I should hope his ear won't die from what basically would be a similar injury as having a helix piercing ripped out.

So our date-day together was pretty short and not as glorious as we planned. We slept in, Matt made breakfast, had planned on playing tennis for an hour or so, clean up the apartment, then going out for a nice dinner and dessert. Instead, our tennis hour was cut short, we spent 30 minutes at the Urgent Care, had Hardees milk shakes, stopped by his parents house to show off the stitches, picked up some first aid supplies from the drug store, watched some really stupid shows (Sponge Bob and The Human Footprint - would have rather watched more Sponge Bob), and gorged ourselves on pizza and cheese sticks.

Today, we planned on going to Holly Springs to get our new washer/dryer around noon, but since Matt also injured his hand by landing on it, we had to enlist Matt's dad for help. He wasn't available until 1, so we didn't get to Holly Springs until 2. I noticed I had a voicemail, checked it, and found out I was supposed to work at the UL reference desk today from 1 to 5. OOPS. After rushing back to Chapel Hill, I managed to get there by 3. I feel like such a jackass for forgetting about that shift.