“Writers are liars, my dear, surely you know that by now? And yet, things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.” - Neil Gaiman - Dream Country
It went bang, I said rap up. Well I'm aware that the guy must do his work But the piledriver man drove me berserk. He said captain I said wot Why?: I was up at 5:00 am today. I don't do mornings. I don't like 5:00 am unless I'm going to bed. I had to drop off my car for a service appointment, so I figured I'd try to nap in between. Well, thanks cityworks for deciding to tear up a sidewalk outside my window at 9:00 am. This song was the perfect compliment to what was happening to me today. Captain Sensible is a prized track of silliness for me and during summer construction season, the fitting soundtrack to my life. I am only missing a red beret and some sassy backup singers.
Favourite Lyrics: I was born, lucky me In a land that I love Though I am poor, I am free When I grow I shall fight For this land I shall die Let her sun never set Victoria
Why?: Happy Victoria Day all! This was the first version of the song I’d ever heard and shall forever remain my favourite. For those not in the know, we celebrate Victoria Day in Canada to the closest weekend to May 24th. We also have cases of 24 beer in Canada. So naturally, it's a fitting holiday to kick off the unofficial start to the summer here. And there are fireworks. So it should be of no surprise that today, it's cold, a little miserable and threatening rain. There may even still be frost warnings. Summer indeed. #RIPMarkESmith
Artist: Nine Inch Nails Title: Down In It Lyrics: And all the world's weight is on my back and I don't even know why. And what I used to think was me is just a fading memory I looked him right in the eye and said goodbye Why?: Happy birthday Trent Reznor. I’m not going to gush too much about him because I’m sure you are all fairly tired of hearing me gush about all my celebrity/rock star husbands. You only need know he is an amazing artist and I was very much in love with him in university. This was the first Nine Inch Nails track I heard and knew was them. I fell in love with them promptly. Trent is also responsible for keeping me happy during my many days of misspent youth and Sanctuary.
Artist: Sisters Of Mercy Title: The Temple of Love Lyrics: And the devil in black dress watches over My guardian angel walks away Life is short and love is always over in the morning Black wind come carry me far away Why?: Happy birthday Andrew Eldritch. My many days of misspent youth at Sanctuary would not be the same without your rocking tunes to which I would grove happily to.
Que será, será Whatever will be, will be The future's not ours to see Que será, será What will be, will be
Why: Sad to hear of Doris Day's passing. Was having a brief conversation about her on Instagram and what was my favourite song by her only a few days ago. It's the only song I know by her because my mom used to sing it. My mother loved this song and would sing what she knew and hum the rest. My mom could sing really well.
Warning: Long post ahead. Swearing involved. TL:DR: I got into a motorcycle accident a few years ago. I knew at the time it was gonna make one hell of a story. There was swearing involved. I said some funny stuff. My family and friends are wonderful. My husband is awesome. I’m still riding my motorcycle and visited the place where that sign <--- lives a year later as a reward for living.
I dislike sad anniversaries. I generally don’t choose to recognize them l and would rather focus on the happier things in life instead. But in most of the crappiest of times, I’ve come out better at the end. That being said, May 13, 2016 is a day that goes down in my books as probably one of the shittier days in my history. I feel that I should probably acknowledge the day because, if anything, a lot of good has come from it.
We were on our way to PD13 (Port Dover, Ontario, for Friday the 13th). It was raining. My bike hit an oil/debris spot on the ramp. I slid and no matter what I did, the bike continued heading towards the guardrail. My bike then hit the high kerb, my foot came off the peg. My foot had come down and my leg hit the wooden post on the guard rail and sent me flying (at least, this is how I remember it).
Here’s where things go slow motion:
When I was flung off the bike, there wasn’t any kind of life flashing before my eyes moment. It was the following thoughts that went through my head:
Goddamn, that hurt. (when my bum knee hit the guard rail post(?) Whatever it hit, it was hard and it hurt).
Aw shit! This is going to hurt! (as I was going through the air and knew I was going to hit the ground or guardrail hard and I knew i wasn’t going to die from this.. yeah. I knew I was going to survive. I was just hoping that it wasn’t going to leave a mark).
Oh fuck… Paul has to watch this happen. Fuck fuck fuck…
For the split second I had to comprehend that my beloved husband was behind me on his motorcycle, having to navigate the ramp and stop safely and watch what was happening to me, I felt so guilty. So shitty. So bloody determined that I really needed to stand up as quickly as possible after crash landing. (Spoiler: I did not stand up right away).
Emus do not give birth.
I hit the ground and proceeded to sound like an emu giving birth (FYI: This is apparently what I sound like when I get the wind knocked out of me, as per one of my good friends who told me so years before).
I was connected on my two way radio with one friend who said the first words out of my mouth, (once the emu birthing was done), were: “What the fuck was that all about?!”
So I was lying there, mad (and out of breath). Mad that I’d slipped. Mad that my bike was probably broken. Mad that I really really wanted to get up but my first aid training told me to stay put, lest I have a neck injury. Also, mad that no one was running a GoPro. I was pissed! Really! I just flew off my bike and landed on a guard rail. Internet worthy stuff! Sigh. I really just wanted to get up and look to see if my bike was okay and then hop on the bike and either go to Port Dover or go home.
And then Paul’s very worried face appeared above me.
Fuck… I can taste blood in my mouth. It’s probably residual from a nose bleed I had earlier in the day from blowing my nose too hard. Or I bit my tongue, but I gotta tell him because he’s going to be the one to assess me right? Why did it have to be Paul?
'Tis but a scratch!
“My arm feels weird, My head and neck feel ok. My leg feels weird… and I can taste blood but I think that’s because of my bleeding nose this morning. Otherwise I’m okay. How’s my bike?” “Your bike is fine, it’s standing upright. It didn’t tip.” Paul was very upset but surprisingly keeping it together and doing what he does best. Taking control of a bad situation.
Yeah right. Fucking liars. Think of a better lie! But here’s the kicker. My bike WAS fine. It had ridden along the kerb, stalled and stayed upright against the kerb. There is a tiny dent on the bottom of the tank and a scuff on the frame. We have since renamed my Precious bike Christine. I still ride her as much as possible. She’s my spirited (yes… I know what I did there. She’s a Honda Shadow Spirit) iron horse from Tennessee that will never be broken in. :) And she's Christine so I have no choice but to love her).
Paul makes beautiful music with this bike
The ride to the hospital involved Paul following my ambulance in his bike, and apparently a police escort helping keep traffic away from him. The ambulance driver hit a pothole. I yelped (my ribs were broken) and he apologized. How nice of him. What a sweet kid.
“Yeah, yeah. I know it’s not you. I blame the ministry of transportation... fucking government cutbacks..."
I could hear Paul’s bike (FYI, it’s a beauty, it roars and he was rev bombing to keep people away from him because he didn’t know the cop wasn’t trying to pull him over).
Remember that scene in Days of Thunder, where Tom Cruise is getting an MRI done after his accident and asks “Could someone talk to me? When I'm driving, I've got a guy on the radio who talks to me.” It was his bike, that sound, that Harley-Davidson roar was Paul talking to me, that gave me focus in this highly confusing and seriously inconvenienced day so far.
Alien Abductions feel like this
In emergency, you are not afforded shame. They cut all my clothes off to assess me. It is the oddest experience lying on a stretcher, cold and naked with a neck brace on having a bunch of strangers milling around you looking worried. I imagine this is what an alien abduction probably feels like minus the probing. There was no probing... go away you sick people.
I dislike being worried over.
“Excuse me?”
Four worried medical professionals suddenly surround me, worried looks. I can see up their noses. It's weirdly hilarious.
“Um… I just wanted to say, I am really sorry I didn’t shave my legs. I really wasn’t expecting to be here today.”
Laughter, visibly relaxed people.
I should have mentioned the bikini waxing part too, but … I wanted to see Paul. I wanted to tell him, I was okay and maybe could he go home and make sure the cats had food? And have cold beer ready for when I get there.
I won’t relate Paul’s side of the story here. I know this was one of the shittiest days of his life and that he was sad and I know he was worried. And I know, indirectly, I was the cause of it and I’ll always feel shitty about that. (Opens thesaurus.com - types in ‘shitty’ - there are no results. Did you mean shirt? - Well shit! I'm all out of synonyms for poop. That’s just crappy.💩)
It was a long day… I was in the hospital around 9 am. I didn’t leave until Monday. (mostly because the person that could have sent me home (It was someone who had to assess me and make sure I could go home) didn’t work after 5 and not on weekends. Tell me again how cutting back funding for healthcare makes sense? I took up a hospital bed for three days when I could have been home relaxing with my cats!!)
Injury count: A bruised lung, four fractured ribs on my left, fractured sternum, dislocated and broken right shoulder, broken left thumb that required surgery and wires to hold it into place while it healed, (it was grossly awesome, picture link at the end so if you don't like gross don't click on that link…) broken right toe and bruised left knee that wouldn’t hold much weight on the other leg, so I was a hobbling mess.
It's just a flesh wound. Can I go home now?
Many lessons were learned that day (and over the next few): Lesson 1. It’s cold in emergency when you’re naked.
Lesson 2. I threw up on a nurse. It hurts like hell puking when you have broken ribs. I can apologize and throw up at the same time. *Promptly adds this to my list of skills on a resume* Nurses (my mom was a nurse) are generally awesome and overworked and inadvertently abused by people like me. Again... very sorry.
Lesson 3. Surgery on thumbs is performed by a plastic surgeon. The opportunity to enhance the two bad girls on my chest missed. When I woke up from surgery, I had pulled my gown open and looked down at my chest and commented that my boobs were still the same size, which was much disappointment. There were worried looking friends and relatives around me when I woke up. I didn’t like that. I made that joke. It was funny. They laughed at my missed opportunity to go up a few cup sizes.
Lesson 4. My husband brought my iPhone and headphones in. I had music to keep me company for the next two days. I’d like to lie to you and tell you it was Talk Talk or Duran Duran that kept me going. I honestly don’t remember if any of their songs came up. I honestly don’t remember what music was playing (Plus, anyone who's paying attention... I didn't get that into Talk Talk until last August). Given my mood, I likely stuck it on classical and listened to selections of Beethoven and Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi. I wanted to go home. I wasn’t comfortable here. I had to pee.
Lesson 5. I HAD TO PEE! My body forgot how to pee (I hadn’t eaten or drunk anything since 6 that morning. And after surgery, I was drinking water and juice and stuff.
I don’t do bedpans. I need to pee. They got me set up with this portable toilet seat thing. I sat. Nothing happened.
Fuck me. I’ve forgotten how to pee.
Another good friend of mind had related her tale of peeing when she had gall bladder surgery. She is my post-surgery pee guru.
“I just let gravity take over” she said. I'll lie and tell you she appeared to me like Ben Kenobi on Hoth. All glowing and mystical, repeating that I needed to go to the Degobah system.
And just like that, the pee flowed.
Koreans are as awesome as we are nuts.
Lesson 6. My cousins are loving, crazy and awesome at the same time. Koreans are all the same. What you can’t fix, feed. They brought a stores worth of Korean noms and started chattering about everything and anything and bickering among themselves like we were all at home. It was great. I love them.
Lesson 7. Bikers are really friendly people. The lady in the next bed’s husband bought me a piece of lemon meringue pie from Fran’s restaurant next-door because he wanted to make me feel better after hearing I’d come in because of a bike accident. For the life of me, I can’t remember his name. I know his wife was really sick. I really hope she recovered and they are happy. Also, some awesome friends made it a point to get me that Friday, May 13th, 2016 patch. It is one of the most important patches I have. Oh, and a T-shirt. I was humbled.
Lesson 8. Don't try to do chores like sweeping when you have that many broken bones. Your body will remind you pretty damn quickly that you should flake out on the couch instead of trying to sweep. I got winded after 30 seconds. (I was sweeping because I was determined to get back to normal... bad idea).
Lesson 9. Murdoch Mysteries is on Canadian television at least three times a day (or it was in May 2016). Itis a really good show and I highly recommend it. It kept me company for the six weeks I was recovering. True to my fangirly ways, I obviously developed a giant crush on Yannick Bisson and Jonny Harris.
Lesson 10. The song 'It’s My Life' by Talk Talk is no longer about a human relationship. It is now squarely a song which I sing loudly and often at my bike that may or may not have tried to kill me. Don't judge me. I'll sing what I want.
Lesson 11. When I got home on Monday, I sat on my bike. Despite the fact she just tried to kill me, I was happy and whispered that as soon as I was able, we’d be traveling again and in six weeks time, the moment that cast came off my clutch hand, I was on it and riding (the clutching was about amateurish and terrible for the first day, but what better way to build the strength back up in my thumb than doing stuff like using the clutch on my bike? Motorcycle physiotherapy!)
Lesson 12. My brother and his wife are awesome baby sitters. They babysat my sorry ass during the time Paul was at work until I was well enough to sort of fend for myself. My nephew was also awesome and kept me company when he wasn't at school.
Lesson 13. If you need to sneeze or cough with broken ribs, hug a pillow. No thanks to anyone at the hospital who never bothered to tell me this. Thanks to another friend who informed me of this.
Lesson 14. I have some wonderful friends in my life. Everyone who came by to see me in the hospital, who dropped in to see me after, messaged me, called me, sent well wishes, and presents! Thank you! You made this Peanut feel all warm and fuzzy. I'd go further but I'll turn into a snivelling mess a la Mike Myers in Wayne's World where he promised he wouldn't cry.
You can actually see where my cast was.
Lesson
15. When you fall, you get back up again. You shouldn't be afraid to
ask for help if you've fallen a little further than you expected. It was
annoying having to ask for help during my recovery. But thanks to
everyone who did help me. As for getting back up... damn right I was on
my motorcycle the moment I got home from getting that final cast removed
from my clutch hand!
Lesson 16. I will never doubt that my husband loves me. Ever. I remember everything he said to me over those few
days, both verbal and non-verbal. *warm fuzzies*
Whee! Wheee! WHEEEEEE!
Lesson 17. Life is what you make it. The following year, Paul and I rode for two days (no trailer for us!) down to Tennessee (where my bike comes from) and North Carolina and slayed a dragon. It was seven states and one province worth of bugs, dirt and awesome and the kind of reaffirming journey that needed to happen to remind us that we make a pretty decent couple and can do anything we want to.
Blog visitor bonus! This scene from True Lies is how I like to remember my accident. While I wish my motorcycle event was as awesome as said scene, in real life I was not the fleeing terrorist. I was Arnold Schwarzenegger and my motorcycle was the horse. And there were injuries. If my life were to become a movie, this would be much more audience pleasing:
As promised, slightly gross photos of my thumb after the cast was removed in the link: (Yeah.. don't click if you're in the least bit squeemish. I don't think the photos are super gross, but hey. I don't gross out easy).
Edit update 1: Yeah, yeah.. I know Lesson 4 doesn't sound like a lesson. I was going to make some comment about the healing power of music, but as it was three years ago and the time when I wrote this post, I actually had to pee and seriously derailed my train of thought.
Why: Some of my earliest memories of music are the things my mother used to listen to. So it was all classical music (or traditional Korean music). I have a lot to thank my mother for. She provided the basis of my love of good music, and in this case, dance. I love to dance, but my dancing is probably best described as drunk flailing. I have great respect for anyone who studied dance. Again, some of my earliest memories include me plunked in front of the TV and being absolutely mesmerized by this piece and performance (not THIS particular performance and I wouldn’t even know where to begin to find the one performance that caught my attention the first time). And while it’s not Christmas, it’s his birthday. Enjoy.
This is Precious Christine, my Honda Shadow Spirit 750
So...
I finally started Instagram-ing and have discovered the limitations of
all the social media platforms. I like to write. I tend to ramble and I
have no focus in life. I've started using Facebook
like a diary and while it's been fun, it's limiting. I can't, say, post a
link to a video and a photo at the same time without it looking wonky.
And then Instagram doesn't do links very well. Plus,
Instagram is like Twitter, but with more followers. And then someone I
really like and admire, (aside: and have a giant crush on!!), starting following me
and commented on a few posts. I had a fan girl moment (READ: Pissing my
pants!) and was like... Be cool, be cool. Don't scare him away FFS! And if he is reading this... well... Um... *Panics... Runs away... Hides. Ugly crying like Troy in Community when he met Levar Burton, sitting in the washroom.* K... so let's try this again. Here are my collected thoughts, rantings and ramblings. The point? I
dunno. Maybe my life experiences, few and far in between as they are,
might amuse someone, might provide a valuable lesson, might help someone
know they're not alone in the weirdness of life? Take what you want
from this. Try to keep up, I have to follow a guy on a 103 Street Glide
who seems to forget I've only got a 750 Honda Shadow. FYI... I keep up
with him just fine, thanks.
On a slightly sadder note: I have no kids. I have this one beloved nephew. I feel like I need to leave something behind about his nutty auntie that he can look back on if he wishes. Also for my extended family, we are separated by an ocean and culture, but we found each other and there's things that need to be shared. And my mother has Alzheimer's disease. It tends to run down the female side of the family so you can understand my desire to try to document pieces of me before they're whisked away. What's going into this blog: So I've started posting songs that I listen to from Facebook, Throwback Thursday posts on Instagram among other things. I
think this will be my blog and collected social media spot. I'm going
to back date my posts to match the dates they went up on social media
because I'm weird that way. Also, this is me, and I've recently gotten into Talk Talk. For those who known me, you remember when I was in high school and EVERYTHING I did was Duran Duran related? Yeah... you know what's coming. But, because I'm allegedly an adult now, I'll try my best to keep that to a minimum. (READ: F you all. I'll make every post about Mark Hollis, Paul Webb and Lee Harris if I can, dammit.) First random fact about me: I am in a later stage of life and it feels like puberty all over again, right down to the crushing after unattainable celebrities. (Read: I think I'm a cougar because those photos of Talk Talk and Duran Duran when they're like half my current age (and younger)... daaaaamn! Fun fact 2: My mom developed a GIANT crush on Patrick Stewart. Seems mom and me really like British men.
Artist: Boomtown Rats Title: I Don’t Like Mondays Favourite Lyrics: Tell me why I don't like Mondays I want to shoot, the whole day down Why?: I would make a joke about how it’s Monday and Monday’s as a rule are a bit shocking after your routine falls into disarray after a weekend of debauchery (Read: Angela is probably hungover 😂). Monday’s are also the time when some crappy news was delivered to me earlier this year (2 Mondays in a row actually…).
The lyrics and subject matter, shocking back in the 80s, are frighteningly commonplace today which made it hard for me to post this song earlier without someone connecting it to a recent event 😞. For what it’s worth, it’s always been a great melancholy song. I’m in a weird mood which is probably why the song made a connection to me today. And it’s Monday. I’m rambling. Sorry. Distracted. (Oooh! Somebody spilled beer in this ashtray!) I need to ask, do you guys all like these posts? Honestly, feel free to comment on them, negative or positive.*
