I am weak.

Thursday, January 17th, 2002

During a Writer's Craft class last year, Mr. Wickers told me I was a weak person because I had caught a cold. He implied that I wasn'tsimply weak because of the cold, but that I probably got hurt a lot, too, that my body was just prone to being in poor condition. At the time, I was really angry about it all. How could he say that? He didn't even know me! Me? Weak? No. I am a strong, strong, woman. I can handle anything.

Recently, however, my body has been telling me differently. Let me list my ailments, since September:

- September, Frosh week: after a summer spent in an office, I take to the outdoors for a four day "Frosh week." The first day, I get a horrific sunburn that does not fade until mid-October.
- September, also Frosh week: it's a really, really hot September, and yet I manage to catch a cold. How in the hell?
- September, sometime: after writing a letter to Claire, I drip sealing wax onto my right index finger. It doesn't hurt until a few minutes later, and I end up having to sleep on my stomach that night so that I can keep my finger in a cup of cold water. I have to wear a band-aid until midway through October to hide the blister I get from this.
- September, later that week: while reaching into a box of band-aids to hide my blister, I cut myself on the cardboard right between my index and middle finger. On my right hand, of course.
- October, a Thursday: all the showers are occupied. I go insearch of another bathroom down the hall. I chose the shower/bathtub combo and turn the water on. The spray comes out in one straight bullet of water and hits me in the fleshy part of my shoulder, right under the collar bone. I scream,and struggle to get past the shot of water to turn it off. I get a bruise that lasts until December.
- Pretty much weekly: I step away from my desk and smash my calf bone on the big hunk of metal sticking out of my bed frame. I have a bruise that is constantly renewing itself.
- New Year's Eve: I arrive at Lara's house, park, and go to the other side of the car to get all the food I brought. As I'm closing the door, the bottom corner scratches my leg. I think it's just a little bruise, so I pay it no heed,and don't feel it all night long (gee, I wonder why?). The next day, I see that it has been bleeding and has become oddly purple.
- January, during break: I go in to work with my mum, to write letters for a computer-illiterate lawyer. As I am readjusting my chair, pulling the lever on the side so that I'm not sitting ten feet in the air, my hand smashes into the garbage bin, placed strategically under me. My hand bruises yellow on the fleshy bit between my thumb and index finger.
- January, earlier this week: while rushing down the four flights of stairs in my dorm, I jump too many steps to the ground and land on my left foot all funny. Now it keeps hurting whenever I walk. I'm presently wearing a tenser bandage.

So what do you think? Am I weak? Yeah, you get back to me on that.

Oh, and go check out a new side project.