Day One: In Stitches

Driving home from Minnesota on a particularly icy day I was looking forward to spending some time in Ankeny with Emily and her family, cheering on her brother who was playing in a basketball tournament. I had gotten up early to make myself "presentable," and thought I had done a halfway decent job, but somebody had a little test of humility in store for me...

And in the case of Slippery, Hard Ice v. Face, "face" was the undisputed loser. Fortunately I was a rock-hard snowball's throw away from the urgent care center, where 20 minutes later I left as good as new, with only 10 stitches (a new record!) and what seemed like a pint of missing blood to show for it.

As of January 1, this is all that remains of the incident. (This, and as I imagine it, a small crater in the ice where my face hit the ground.)

I'm not too big on posting the self-portraits, but I did want to document this one so that it could be remembered. The rest of the trip was great. Emily's family was just the right level of "sympathetic," leaving to the rest of my friends to remind me of just how goofy and unathletic the whole thing must have appeared to be.

As far as posts, I'm accepting any alternate stories on how I came to need 10 stitches in my face. Anything better than "I slipped on the ice" will do!