How to Properly Break Your Ankle: Days 57 - 60

After weeks of being deprived of some of the coolest kids I know (Forrest and Savannah), I was finally invited over to their place for a potluck.
The potluck was said to start at six at their place and for once I arrived almost on time. The moment I got there, it all kind of looked like this:

*crickets chirp*

Slowly, people showed up, and once everyone was there it was brought to my attention that everyone knew about me with the following conversation occurring multiple times in slightly different ways.
Person: "So uh, how did you do that?" *points to ankle*
Me: "Oh, I was bouldering with these kids," *points to Forrest and Savannah* "and I fell."
Person: "Oooooooh! You're that friend!"
Me: *laughs* "Yeah, that's me."

Proud moment #57

The potluck ended as any potluck would, people slowly started to trickle out as the night went on. I finally decided to leave when I considered I still had to make a 40 minute drive back home. But I did not leave without attempting a live action crutch shuffle for Ms. Savannah Russell.

Don't try this at home.

A few days later, a friend invited me to check out the Torrey Pines Glider Port with him. Before I had gotten down there, it seemed to have slipped his mind that I was on crutches and he wanted to take this treacherous path down to the beach below. With one look at it I quickly informed him that wasn't happening.

Cliff of DOOM.

He managed to make up for it though because I got to experience my first piggy back ride as an injured person.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Afterwards, we watched 2001: A Space Odyssey. I proceeded to have my mind blown yet again.

Then I spent my Tuesday eagerly anticipating Wednesday.

Disneyland, Disneyland, Disneyland, Disneyland!!

How To Properly Break Your Ankle: Day 56

On this particular day, I was getting a visit from my good friend/old RA Andrew. He came bearing much wisdom -the best being how I should not go to grad school. Unfortunately, life may pan out in a way that grad school is the only option for me.

But enough about the lame stuff! What really matters is how we decided to spend our entire day together.

Amy and Andrew: Professional Adventurers.

Our day started off poorly.

This lasted a good half hour.

I was determined to show Andrew that I am capable of fun things. We started our day with a healthy, huge, breakfast. And then were on our way to the Air and Space Museum.

We played in the space exhibit first. We learned that you can't go in to space if you're broken, no space colony is complete without a trampoline, and that 4D technology is out of this world.

That last one is water getting thrown in our faces. Andrew had protection, I did not.

We went and played in the air exhibit next. This wasn't as exciting, they just had a bunch of airplanes.

Snoopy as the Red Baron was a big perk.

Once we left the Air and Space Museum we had a long walk back to the car. It was basically Andrew's form of torture. Of course, he played it off as preparation for my days at Cal Poly.

Worst. Idea. Ever.

Then we were on our way to Seaport Village for a quick stop. We went in to the kite shop and the guy working told me about how he broke his ankle once too.

We're besties now.

After our brief visit at Seaport Village, Andrew drove us to hang out with his friends. Where we proceeded to get dinner and then play Boggle for hours.

Andrew is the worst Boggle player ever.

Then, our day drew to a close and Andrew finally dropped me off at my house.

How to Properly Break Your Ankle: Days 47-54

As mentioned in other posts, I spend a lot of my time sitting on my bed, watching the next episode of Bones or a random now streaming movie on Netflix.

If the movies are really good -and my friends are online- I narrate the best parts of the movie to them. Case and point, Aliens.

"They're coming out of the goddamn walls!"

Other movies that deserve honorable mentions are:
Clash of the Titans

2001: A Space Odyssey

At first glance it may look boring....

... but once you get it, it's kind of like this.

This laziness can occur for days on end until something interrupts me; like my roommate needing Netflix for a paper, or the mailman delivering a package. This package was no ordinary package though. No. This package came with a specially wrapped new super power for Crutch Girl.

What followed was a sequence of awesome that can best be described with this comic panel:

Thus marks the first time Crutch Girl ventured out on her own.

How to Properly Break Your Ankle: Days 39 - 46

The excitement began about a week in advance. A conference known as TMS (it has something to do with materials engineering) was taking place in San Diego from February 27th through March 3rd. Due to its proximity to San Luis Obispo -about 5 hours when it's not raining- Cal Poly MatEs had decided they were going to go. And, one of the coolest girls I know, Sarah Baker, wanted to crash at my parent's place to save me from myself.
With the okay from my mom, I was counting down the days until Sarah was to show up.

Then, a little less than a week before Sarah was to show up, even better news was delivered via phone call.
Sarah: "Hey, so you know I'm coming down on Friday, right?"

I updated my calendar and did a little dance.

I sat around and willed Friday night to come faster. I looked very similar to this:

The day came, Sarah picked me up and we hung out until the early morning hours.

Saturday was an important day. We got up, toured the Self Realization Garden in Encinitas, looked at the beach, and even did a drive by of Legoland.

Then night fell and our alter egos, Rogue and Crutch Girl, came out to play.

All was going along perfectly fine. Then the worst happened, it started raining. Unbeknown to both Rogue and herself, Crutch Girl's number two weakness is Water. Her number one weakness is Metal.
This was all discovered in only the most appropriate of ways. Rogue and Crutch Girl were walking along the street with a group of friends. Suddenly, Wet Metal Man jumped out of the bushes and blocked Crutch Girl's path. Crutch Girl fell to the ground in a state of confusion while Rogue used her flame throwing powers to defeat Wet Metal Man.

After the defeat of Wet Metal Man, Rouge realized that Crutch Girl was in no state to move forward on her own. Rogue used her powers of transportation to move Crutch Girl and all their friends to an ice cream parlor where everyone celebrated.

A victorious conclusion to the adventures of Rogue and Crutch Girl.

The following morning, we were back to our normal selves. Sarah had some boring conference stuff to do and I decided to spend the day being extra productive.

By Monday we decided to hang up our alter egos for the remainder of Sarah's visit and went exploring.

Suddenly Tuesday morning was upon us and the adventures of Rouge and Crutch Girl were to be continued.

How to Properly Break Your Ankle: Days 14 - 18

There are some great talents I have gained since I returned home from the hospital. Obviously, since the doctor's orders are "Non-weight bearing on left ankle at all times," that means I have some super awesome crutches. And for the record, crutches are not as fun as you would like to imagine. I had pictured time spent on my crutches would be really similar to when I was younger and my parents would each have one of my hands and then they would swing me.

Looks like fun, right?

Instead, I'm stuck with something much more along the lines of this:

The good news is that with these wretched devices, I have created my very own dance move. I call it, the crutch shuffle.

I'm proud to say I came up with this myself.

But, the best thing about being on crutches I can sum up in two words. Handicap parking. I used to be one of those people that always thought handicap spots were frustrating. Not anymore. I am a new, proud owner of a handicap placard and it allows me more parking privileges than just parking in the blue spaces. I can park in metered spots and not fill the meter. I can park in 10 minute only spots and be there for 3 hours too. Why am I so fortunate? Because I'm broken, and they figure that if you're broken the closer you are to the sidewalk, the easier things are for you. I have found this to be true. Using crutches to get everywhere, if done improperly, hurts your arms a lot. Another bonus? The blue handicap spots are actually wider and have more space between your car and the next car, which means that if I felt like it, I could park like this:

Like a boss.

This blog is dedicated to my old neighbors Nick, Colin, & Kevin. The ones who managed to make me a whole day late with posting.