My sophomore year in college seemed to be highlighted by a lot of giggling with my friends about others tripping or falling. (I'm not a very noble person. Hopefully I've grown a bit. : } ) In fact, if a fall produced a little bit of blood, that was even funnier. Like I said, not too noble...
We had had a week or torrential rainfall. Our college campus was/is lovely. The University of Montevallo opened it's doors in October 1896 with beautiful cobblestone sidewalks and streets through out. Lovely, right? Yes... except when it rains.
Do you know what happens to lovely, historic (82 year old) cobblestone after say, 82 years? It settles and makes lovely, and I do mean lovely...and deep puddles when it rains.
Our fine university felt it was time to do some upgrading around our campus. They had actually torn up some of our cobblestone sidewalks and were replacing them with smooth, concrete sidewalks.
Well, we finally got a break in the rain action. The next day was gorgeous and the birds seemed to be singing an even lovelier song than usual. The day after the rain, I was walking back to the dorm from the Jeter History building. I got behind a girl I didn't care for very much. I don't remember her name or a lot of what she looks like, but she reminds me of the girl friend of Toni Collette in the movie, In Her Shoes. Toni's friend's name was Amy in the movie. I still fast forward through the scenes with Amy in them as she reminds me of this girl. I'll call the girl I was walking behind Amy.
Anyway..... the reason I didn't care for Amy very much was because she was always whispering or talking about somebody and putting them down. I thought, "how rude!" (Oh, the irony!) As we were walking back to the dorm, I was behind Amy and she was, as usual, gossiping about yet some other poor soul. I was inwardly (in my mind) rolling my eyes at her. Then I saw something Amy didn't see. She was headed straight to the area that was roped off and f i l l e d with mud and water! This was where they were installing a new sidewalk. It was like a long, deep trough of mud and water. As she was walking and gossiping and yickety yacking, she literally walked straight into that long, stretch of water and mud and fell down face first!!!
She hopped up with her eyes and mouth wide, completely and thoroughly appalled at what had happened to her. I couldn't believe my luck! I had actually just seen the best fall in the history of falls. I was laughing so hard! (On the inside of course!) Not really. By the time I got back to the dorm, I couldn't contain myself and gathered my friends around me as I embellished the story. They cackled with delight with me and I felt like I had won. Won, you say? Yep. I'd told the best story of all about falling. Mature, right?
Well, like I said, and Proverbs said long before me, pride comes before the fall.
That very afternoon I had a study session in the Jeter History building before finals. It was World History and I cannot begin to tell you how bored I was. I thought I'd just "sneak" out of the classroom and down 3 flights of wooden stairs in a building built in 1896 wearing - - Dr. Scholl's original sandals! Did I mention that I wasn't a brilliant sort at 19 years of age?
Do you know what happens when you try to tiptoe down 82 year old wooden steps in Dr. Scholl's original sandals? They turn into SKIS!
Honest to goodness. I skied down the first 20 steps with a thunderous PBump PBump PBump PBump 20 times!!! I ran to pick up my sandals because on step 20 my left Dr. Scholl's original sandal had gone east and my right Dr. Scholl's original sandal had gone west.
By this time, the study session and the professor had come running out of the classroom to see what could be the matter. But I was nowhere to be found, no sir! I was outside the Jeter History building bruised and bleeding. (When you fall, you get extra "points" when you bleed...)
Seems like after that seeing others fall didn't have the same effect on me. Oh, except for the time I fell in Target! Another time.
Trying to become more noble,
Lila
4 comments:
Oh, bless. We have ALL been there, haven't we? (especially the part about taking just a little too much glee in others' messes!! We are truly soul sisters!) You are, indeed, signed up on Mr. Linky for telling your story! So far, you are running away with the prize! :-) Thanks for playing! I loved it!
Those were some LOUD shoes....
Oh me....that's too funny! You sound like my friend Mindy-she laughs when people get hurt. Not 'cause she is mean or anything, she really can't help herself ;o} the worse, the better.
Tracy
Hey, thanks for stopping by my blog. We must be alot alike about the falling thing, for some reason it is just hilarious to me. If I would have been there to see you fall down those steps, I would have probably laughed until I peed my pants. Sorry, that' just the kind of girl I am. Stop by anytime.
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