You win again, Gravity!

First off, I hate the City Line Ave Hilton in Philadelphia. It has no garage. Can you imagine a "world class" hotel with no garage? You have to park down this hill in an unpaved lot. Last Thurday, when I was there for a conference, it was raining. So I had to walk to the Hilton in the rain, which did not endear it to me. And just to finish my rant because this is not a rant about how much I dislike the Hilton, but I just need to let you understand my frustration when the events of last Thursday become clear.

The Ladies' bathroom in the Hilton does not have locking doors on the toilets. Oh my god. Twice someone walked in on me. And it wasn't just my unfortunate stall. It was all of them. I hate the No-garage, no-privacy Hilton.

Jule and I were attending the same conference. She has warmer feelings for the Hilton, largely because she found a parking space up front and also found the only toilet with working locks. So for lunch, we walked rougly a block to the Chilis. It was the nearest thing in walking distance. Lunch was fine. Pleasant. Jule even thought the waiter was cute.

On the way back, it was raining (still) and I was talking about how the secretary had the same meeting as I did this morning but she never came back after the 10.30 break. Jule saw her leave the hotel.

Then I fell. No warning. No moment of tottering, wobbling and grappling with gravity. I just fell forward.

Somehow I threw aside my umbrella and held out of hands and did a little roll to my right side. Jule said the roll was really impressive. I guess it saved my from falling flat on my nose but I ended up in the wet grass and mud. The right side of my clothes was sopping wet.

The first words out of Jule's mouth was "Workman's comp!"

I looked back at the sidewalk to see why I fell but there was nothing but acorns. Must have slipped in on the wet acorns.

Was I hurt? One first inspection, my right knee and both hands were scrapped. The knee was bleeding but not badly. I went back to the nonlocking toilets and tried to clean up. The nice thing about attending a social worker conference is that everyone is ready to help. One woman had some wet wipes. Another had a bandage. Awesome.

Clean and not bleeding any more, I went off to my next meeting. Only later did I notice that my right foot was scrapped and bruised.

The next day my foot was an interesting shade of purple-yellow. And it hurt to walk. On put pressure on my toes. It took me to Sunday to figure out that maybe I hurt my foot when I fell on Thursday. I just knew I broke something. A toe, a hair line fracture, something.

So I went to the doctor. Probably tendonitis, a strain and pulled muscles, not a broke bone but x-rays were ordered to be on the safe side.

I hate the Hilton. I didn't even fall in front of the damn hotel so I could complain about their sidewalks, I fell in front of the city's reservoir. No use complaining to Philadelphia. The city can't be bothered to do anything, much less keep sidewalks acorn free.