Life lesson learned...

When your wife takes a swing....duck! No, my wife would never do such a thing....would she?!?!? Of course not!!!


This was a little wound that I sustained while in the heat of combat. I mean, playing basketball...

It was a peaceful Monday evening playing church basketball. Until out of the blue this massive little man comes charging down the lane, heading directly for me. What do I do? Where do I go? Do I play fundamental basketball.....plant my feet, brace for impact, and stand tall to take a charge? Do I tuck my tail between my legs and head for the hills whimpering the whole way? Or do I conjure up some unknown source of aggression and attack this rambling menace with an unexpected barrel roll to the knees and nip the situation in the bud?!?

Having played high school basketball, the fundamentals won out. I figured I was bigger than he was anyway right?? Of course I was!! But being bigger never stopped a well placed elbow from taking off a little bit of skin...

So there I was, my vision turning red. Some sort of extra liquid, in addition to my normal ten gallons of sweat, dripping down my face. I reached up and noticed I was bleeding. I very calmly turned to the ref and while pointing to my eye, said in a very polite manner, "HEY YOU IDIOT!! HOW IS THAT NOT A FOUL!?!?!" Ok, so maybe it didn't quite go like that. But since the other team still had the ball they wouldn't stop play. So I did the only thing I could. I got back into the thick of things and pulled down an NBA Playoff type rebound. I must have been 4 feet over the next guy. I mean I was waaaaay up there. Whoever said white men cant jump, has never seen me grab a rebound when I'm angry!

They finally stopped play. I got to go to the bench and towel off and spent a minute stopping the bleeding, before coming back in to finish up the game in what must be one of the greatest displays of heroism ever to have been displayed in the annals of church basketball history. We did lose the game, but that's beside the point.

Kim said it looked like it might need stitches, and while I tried to protest and convince her that I was too much of a man to let such a minor flesh wound dictate my evening, she won out and off to the hospital we went. Now I'm not a fan of needles. I'm not particularly scared of them either. I don't mind donating blood. I do it as often as I can. However, when you have a laceration that requires stitches, it requires the skin to be numbed above and below the cut. While the above part didn't bother me, the below part had me a little worried. I didn't enjoy having an ER doctor who looked like he was fresh out of med school threading a needle into my eyelid at 3 AM after having been on shift for 8 hours already.

So, after a 5 hour stint at the local ER, I came home at 5 AM with a baby who had slept 7 hours off and on and a wife who hadn't gotten a wink. I knew the next day would be rough.

This was about a week ago and since then my eye has turned black and blue and now yellow. I get weird looks, but I can't tell if it's people looking at my eye or if it's just the normal "Man, that guy is ugly" stares.

If there's been a positive experience out of this all, it's that I've been pampered by my wonderful and amazing wife. I can't thank her enough. I love you honey!!