tale of woe

this short weekend trip to LA, which wasn't gonna be so much fun anyways (going to someone's memorial is a rather somber affair), is turning out decidedly NOT FUN. so, the plan was for my parents to drive down and pick me up at the airport, then drive to a family friend's house to spend the night, attend the memorial tomorrow, drive me to the airport tomorrow night, and drive back up to sf on monday. their drive down was fine -- quick and uneventful. my flight was also fine, pretty turbulence-free, and i didn't even take a xanax. however, in the 10 minutes between landing (when i spoke to my parents and all was well) and when i found them at the airport, it was determined that my dad had a high fever, probably in the vicinity of 40C (104F). this, as you might imagine, changed our plans a bit. our family friends went to a motel a block from their house and reserved us a room so that we wouldn't infect them or their elderly mother, and i got behind the wheel, very glad that i hadn't taken that xanax after all.

got there ok, met up with the friends at the motel (they brought us food and medicine and such so we wouldn't have to go out) and went to park the car. parking lot was one of the most ridiculous lots i've ever seen and my dad, feeling better after having a tylenol, parked the car since i'm not good at backing into tight spaces. i went around to the back to get luggage out, tripped on a curb of sorts, and went sprawling backwards, pretty much directly into a fire hydrant. couldn't speak for a few moments after the impact, having the wind knocked out of me. got up, went to our room, looked at the scrape and developing bruise in the mirror, and got super shaky. meep. went to family friends' house so she could help me disinfect my back and bandage it up. not fun, since the peroxide and the general touching made the whole thing burn, but that's ok. the worst part is now. the surface doesn't hurt much anymore, but walking is painful, moving is painful, sitting incorrectly is painful, and i'm terrified that i broke a rib (which seems unlikely) or hurt a kidney (which also seems unlikely but more possible) or something. i will have to get an xray when i get home.

on top of all of this, we're not sure what exactly is going on with my dad, and my mom is terrified of driving on freeways. if he's not suddenly better tomorrow (which appears unlikely), we're gonna have to think about how they'll get home. it's possible that i will cancel my flight, drive them home, and fly back from sf, missing monday's classes. this wouldn't be the end of the world, but still, not something i necessarily want to do.

so, meep. send hugs!