How is that for a title? Sadly, it's true. It's kind of a crazy story. . .
The last two weeks have been really busy (which seems to be what I say every time, and it is always true). But I had finally settled on a paint color for the family room and kitchen. I really wanted to get the painting done before next Monday, when Bailey will arrive home for Thanksgiving, because then we will be in party-with-Bailey-mode and our house will be re-decorated for Christmas! Earlier this week I looked at my schedule and figured that I could squeeze in a couple of hours a day to paint. It was delightful, as painting is definitely my happy place. So on Tuesday I put on a 4 hour PBS documentary on LBJ and blissfully painted and nerded out to history. It's so relaxing!
I'm really good about beginning painting rojects with meticulous care, taping off and covering every exposed surface with paper or dropcloths. The first day I finished the kitchen. The next day I started the family room, but soon realized that the prep for that room was taking forever. There was so much to tape off and fix before the actual painting could happen. In case you are wondering, I do NOT find the prep work for painting relaxing! My prep work on this day was adequate, but a little less meticulous.
By the time I was actually able to put paint to the wall I only had about an hour before picking up Joseph from school. Sadly, I had to put away my painting tools for the day because about an hour later the sister missionaries came over for dinner (I made a new recipe for dinner and it turned out super spicy and one of the sisters is a wimp about spicy food and was totally freaked out by my spicy butternut squash curry!) Immediately after the missionaries left, I headed to the church to help at a Book of Mormon mystery dinner Aubrey was in charge of for the Priests and Laurels from two wards.
So, yesterday I got up and raced through my long list of things to-do, hoping to carve out some more painting time. I had just donned my painting clothes and opened the lid of the paint when a friend called to say she was locked out of her car and needed my rescue services. When I got back I painted for a bit until it was time to get Joseph. And then I painted on in the waning light, stopping now and then to help get everybody food and off to their activities. At this point my prep work was LOUSY and, I am embarrassed to admit, I wasn't even moving the drop cloths when I moved to a new section of the wall. I'm afraid I always do that. I start projects with careful preparation and by the end I am moving quickly and cutting corners. Sigh.
To reach the top of the wall I had been standing on an old kitchen stool, which isn't the most stable base on a carpeted floor, but I have good balance and don't mind a little danger. I was painting above the TV, which is on a high mantel above the fireplace. I reached up to cut in along the ceiling and couldn't quite reach as far left as I needed to paint, so I leeeeaaaaned to the left . . . . . and lost my footing on the unsteady stool. I reached out with my right foot for the flimsy and pathetic slipper-type chair next to the fireplace, but it just knocked over backward, bringing me down too. My paint tray dropped onto the floor, spilling some paint on the carpet. Even worse, though, somehow I snagged the computer which sits next to our TV on the mantel and brought it down with me. It hit me in the back of the head and then ricocheted over to gouge the wall by the fireplace.
All this because I was in such a rush to finish painting and didn't 1) prep the floor properly (which would have avoided spilling on the carpet) 2) get a decent ladder to stand on, or 3) take the extra second it would have taken to get off the stool and move it to the left rather than leaning precariously to the side and creating a messy and painful mess.
So, I spent last night googling concussion, wondering what kind of damage I have done to my brain. Luckily, I felt fine after falling and hopped up to clean up the mess and then finish the painting. But today my head hurts. There is definitely a sore place in the back of my skull, as heads are not supposed to come in contact with falling computers!
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