Yes, I know I have an exam in seven and a half hours and I should be sleeping, but I just wanted to write for a second about what happened tonight. R and I were leaving practice, heading down the stairs to the parking lot, shivering in the cold darkness and talking about who knows what, when she suddenly rolled her ankle and pitched forward off the next-to-last stair (thank goodness she was so low down!). She hit the concrete sidewalk with a pretty spectacular crash, stuff flying everywhere, and started rolling around holding her ankle. I dropped down beside her, but there wasn't a lot I could do. If she had been a little camper of mine, like Sofi a couple years back, I would have had her take off her boot and try to stretch several different ways, etc. Just my presence and calmness would have been an asset. But this is R, who like any serious athlete has dealt with countless injuries already, and who studies and works in the fields of anatomy and physical therapy. I couldn't tell her anything she didn't already know; all I could do was tell her to try to move it around and to take her time getting up. Her Friday graduation and her much-anticipated Christmas trip to New York with her mother were the furthest things from my mind until she started crying. "No, no, no, I can't be hurt now, I have to do so much walking, no, no!"

Anyway, we got home and somehow between us got her foot iced, wrapped, and elevated (if there's one thing I know about, it's how to treat a foot), and I convinced her to take some Aleve (pain med as well as anti-inflammatory... my wonder drug for about two years straight), but it still hasn't really gotten much better. And all she can think about is the fact that she hasn't seen her mom in a year and that she planned this wonderful vacation for the two of them and paid for it all by herself, and that now she's gone and 'ruined it' by hurting herself. I didn't even need to understand Afrikaans to interpret that tirade I just heard through her bedroom door.

Anyway, I feel really sorry for her. She really deserves this trip - she's never been to New York, she hasn't seen her mom in forever, she's worked her butt off all year long, and she's graduating in two days - "and now I'm going to have to do everything on crutches!" I heard her wail in Afrikaans to her mom. Boy, have I been there and done that, let me tell you. Maybe a miracle will happen and it'll get a lot better overnight, since she won't be moving it. I personally thought she should have quit trying to stretch it out and just wrapped it tight and propped it up - sometimes movement can do more harm than good, especially with a new injury - but like I said, this is her field of study, so I wasn't going to tell her what to do. We'll see how she is tomorrow.

One little bit of other news: I've found a couple of cool open-water marathon swims that I could do this summer for Channel practice - one is short, 2.4 miles, up in Charleston, another is Swim Around Key West - just what it sounds like - for 12.5 miles, and then I have a choice of two up in the Boston area, one for 10 miles and the other for 7.8 miles. Even if I never make it to the Channel - although I sure hope I do! - those would be cool adventures, both to discover my limits and to gain experience. Ocean swimming is very different from a pool.

OK, bedtime now - anthropology awaits.

Send some good wishes R's way, if you have the time...