My library card at work

I'm not the most literary person I know but I'm also not illiterate. At the beginning of the year there were a lot of things I said I wanted to do this year. One of the few things that I did do, and have been doing is reading more: at least one new book a month - accomplished.

I sometimes wonder why I read so much, I'm entertained at the moment. But like with movie-watching, have I read something that stays with me forever? Not really. Or not that I can easily recall. Sometimes after reading a book, I only have one impression of it.

I'll call this my "review" of books read thus far this year, somewhat in the order that I've read them.

"The Brooklyn Follies" - The family was quirky and dysfunctional. Almost too real to be fiction.

"The Autobiography of Malcolm X" - Humbled by how much I did not know about him. I cried towards the end when I realized the book was going to reach the point when he was going to be assassinated. Sad to read it today and think that it could have been written yesterday when I walk around certain parts of Brooklyn.

"The Outsiders" - I read it because I thought it would be great. It was good, I guess. I just remember funny names and that I liked the poem interpretation at the end. But then again, I couldn't interpret it for myself.

"A Long Walk to Freedom" - How inadequate am I. I could definitely be doing more with my life.

"She's Come Undone" - Wow, so this wasn't a funny book. I needed to read a funny book after the Mandela read and picked this by mistake. I was disturbed. I don't care if I spoil it, don't read it. The main character gets sexually assaulted at 12, I don't know why I kept reading it after that.

"The Bride Price" - The duality of Christianity and the local African religions hit close to home. Crazy because I'm more than a few generations removed from the Mother Continent, but it reminds me of what I saw day-to-day growing up.

"The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific" - I was using the bathroom and stopped to look at how much toilet paper I was using. I didn't take it for granted. If I had been living in Kiribati, I would not have had the luxury. I have no idea why the book has its title.

"Little Earthquakes" - I do not want to have children, especially an infant. If i can have my own child naturally, with no pain, and starting at age 5, I'll reconsider.

"Of Love and Other Demons" - this is the second book by GGM that makes me wonder exactly how fascinated he is by affairs between very young girls and old men.

"Interpreter of Maladies" - I read most of the short stories, more to pass the time than because I was interested. I pretended to be reading it so I could ignore a hyperactive kid on the subway. I can now define "malady" and will try to use it in Scrabble.

u dont quite know till you got till it's gone...

i was talking to someone at work today and i couldnt help but notice his teeth. they were perfectly uniform in position, color, and size and above all i could tell that they were all his.

i thought it was just my imagination but then kevin confirmed that my front right tooth is a little darker now than the tooth to the left

of it. it used to be the same color before i loosened it.

i have a mouth guard now. i styled my hair so it can now accomodate a helmet. i'm almost ready to start biking again.

talk about a monday pick-me-up.

Thanksgiving

1. I didn't have a concussion.
2. I have dental insurance. Which means my bill will only be $1,500.
3. I didn't require stitches.
4. All the bruises and scabs on my face healed flawlessly.
5. Most can't tell that I have a new tooth. Except for my cousin who when I smiled laughed at me and said, "Why'd they give you a white one?"
6. I didn't break any bones (do teeth count as bone?)
7. I got to take off work for two days.
8. I am now the office poster child for wearing a helmet.
9. I know now that I should wear a mouth guard because I am now paranoid that I am going to randomly fall (down the stairs) and chip more teeth.
10. Kevin nursed me back to "health" and was clever/conniving/immoral enough to have me give a fake name and SSN at the ER so that I wouldn't get a $300 bill later.

i'm okay

Smart people sometimes do very not so smart things. I should be happy to be well but apparently, I'm starting to think I'm too vain to realize my good fortune.

I was biking to the park last night to catch a free concert. Kevin told me to go ahead, he would catch up with me later on Bedford Avenue. This he did, because after I fell off my bike, I waited for him on the corner of Bedford and Empire Blvd.

I had just eyed the sidewalk. There was no bike lane where I was riding and the flow of traffic ahead worried me. In my head I heard Kevin's instructional voice telling me how not to 'take the sidewalk', else I'd "bust my ass". I didn't bust my ass. But I did bust my face and three teeth. Two days ago I was describing my summer as relatively uneventful - I wanted to do something exciting, I said!

The ER:
After our walk home, we called an emergency RN line (thank you health insurance). The RN didn't think I had a concussion ( I didn't either, I hit my face, not my head). However, she suggested I go to an "Urgent Care" facility. Her system didn't list any in Brooklyn (umm, yeah, thank you System). I didn't want to drive to the hospital so Kevin offered to drive but I refused after remembering the first driving lesson he's had from me.

The ER is an interesting place.

When I checked in the attendant asked me if I had been assaulted.
"No. I fell off a bike."
"Oh, a motorcycle accident."
"No. A bicycle."
"Oh. Okay," he smiled.

I was bed Eleven. Bed Ten's guest snorted drugs, I'm sure of it. Bed Nine spent two hours on the phone calling his family to tell them that he was okay; he got madder with each phone call he had to make to his worried family. There was a person handcuffed to the bed in the trauma room that occasionally yelled out things such as:

• "Are yoooouuuu trying to kill meeee?"
• "I'm hungryyyyyyyyyyyy"
• "I want foooood"
• " I ammmmm hungryyyyyy"

I was lectured on not having had a helmet because I obviously needed the obvious stated. How lucky was I to not have a major head injury. I just needed a tetanus shot, some antiobiotic ointment, and a visit to the dentist ASAP.

I chipped off more than half of tooth #7. I fractured tooth #8. I have a small chip on tooth#9. I know the terminology because the dentist that saw me this morning gave me a new tooth #7.

I wasn't on the ground long after the fall before I shot up and brushed myself off. I barely remember it because it happened so fast- I didn't even have time to break it using my arms or hand. My face hit the ground and I thought "Get up. You're on a busy street. How embarrasing"

Injury inventory:

• glasses not really broken - heavily scratched right lens; will now wear my contacts
  
• cut above my right eyebrow (it is now bandaged, which probably makes it look worse)
• large purple scrape under my right eye (also bandaged)
• cut on the outside of my right nostril (Rudolph-like but no bandage necessary)
• scrape on my front nose center
• minor red scrape between my nose and right lip
• (all of the above was summarized as face trauman in the ER report)
• minor cuts on my right foot
• two right knee scrapes
• large bruise on my right calf

So there you have it. And what was my main concern when I got up and waited for Kevin to catch up with me?

• Did I lose my front tooth? I've always been proud of my smile - never needed braces, au natural and now I'm missing a tooth.
• This was not supposed to happen. I just wanted to go to the concert.
• My face - am I going to have bruising for the rest of my life to remind me of that idiot move I made that one time I was 25 and had just learned to ride a bike 5 weeks prior.
• How much is this going to cost if I go to an ER? I guess I'm dipping into my down payment stash. No more property for me this year.
• Anger. Stupid stupid Cheeky. I took to the sidewalk doing everything wrong, all of which I knew was wrong in my head, but mechanically I couldn't just get to work.
• I fell. Did I just fall?
• Am I bleeding?
• No one stopped to help so I must look okay. That or this is Brooklyn. ha.

hiatus over

I haven't been writing not because I'm down or anything, but because I've been busy. Poor excuse, i know.

I spend 99.9% of my free time with Kevin and he doesn't know I have a blog (partly because I don't want him to read what I write about him) . So I've had all these thoughts I wanted to write down but never got around to them and now I can't remember them.

Summer, please don't leave me. August is here and it's hard to believe. I've been biking somewhat regularly. I managed to not run anyone off the Brooklyn Bridge last week. I'm going to continue bike riding until it's too cold to want to leave the house. Hopefully this will mean through the end of October.

I've come to the realization that I will not use the gym membership I bought. I should've just learned to bike ride earlier. Like say, 20 years ago.

Things to come:
6 months at my new job, where do I stand? (hint hint: trying to not let my knees buckle)
I broke my vow and traveled to Texas.
Read a book that changed my mind about bearing children.
Have read books this month that have made me pose some interesting questions like, could I get away with using less toilet paper?