We Were Only Freshmen

 

This is Ashley and me our freshmen year of college, going to the All-Hall Ball.  It was a formal dance for students who lived in the residence halls.  For a whopping $2 you got access to the dance and the charter bus that took you there.  Anyway, clearly this was a long time ago, back when I hadn't yet discovered the magic of eyebrow waxing, and I thought a barn jacket was acceptable outerwear for a formal event.  (Though, in my defense, the dance was held at an airplane hangar.)

It was also our freshman year that The Verve Pipe's hit "The Freshman" came out.  As young people are wont to do, I believed that the song's lyrics were imbued with all kinds of profound meaning directed especially toward me.  Looking back on those lyrics, I still have no idea what they are talking about, something about the singer doing something regretful with a girl, but I think there is definitely a clear message about the brashness of youth and foolishly thinking you have it all figured out when you're young. 

That year I thought I had many things figured out.  I thought I understood relationships, and I believed love could conquer all.  I was moody and angsty, and I figured that meant I was some kind of artistic type who really truly understood the meaning of life.  

I was such a dumbass.

One particular memory comes to mind when I think of "The Freshmen."  It was Easter night of freshman year, my hometown friend Wyatt and I got in a car accident driving back to college.  He was driving, and we were essentially victims of road rage.  The car spun around on the freeway and hit a guardrail, but we were okay.  After we pulled over and patched up the headlight using duct tape purchased at K-Mart, we got back on the road.  "The Freshman" was playing on the radio.  Somehow the song's message about the stupidity of youth seemed loud and clear at that time. 

We all have those personal connections with the songs from our youth.  Which is why I was super excited last week when I got an invitation to go see The Verve Pipe in concert, at a special media-only event.  (I was even more excited that they referred to me as "the media" in the email they sent.) 

It seems The Verve Pipe is now producing songs for children, and Nathan and I were going to get to see their concert, eat a free meal, and get a free autographed CD.  

We were getting ready to get on the 4:13 train downtown.  I was running around upstairs doing stuff, and to keep Nathan occupied I said he could play with his toy coffee maker in the kitchen sink.  It seemed wholesome enough, but what I didn't realize was that he was getting the entire kitchen floor wet.  So when I went downstairs I slipped and banged my shin into the corner of the kitchen door frame. 

The strangest part was that a giant purple ping-pong ball-sized lump formed on my leg instantly.  Like, before I could even get off the floor, this thing had grown on my leg.  Bill was at Home Depot, and the second he came home he said, "We're going to Urgent Care."  He figured I had internal bleeding or something.  Going to Urgent Care seemed like overkill, but I didn't want it to end up being one of those stories where a blood clot dislodged from my leg and traveled up to my brain and killed me or something.  

The Urgent Care people did x-rays.  Those x-rays had to be emailed to a radiologist at the hospital, who I'm sure was thrilled to have to consult on some stranger at Urgent Care who had a bruise.  Anyway, while I was waiting for the radiologist to give me the all-clear, I had a lot of time to wait around.  I'm not gonna lie, I found it kind of relaxing.  But since I also had so much time, I took a picture of my leg, which was not nearly as swollen as it had been:

After 90 minutes at Urgent Care, the doctor came in to say I had a bruise (duh).  They gave me an Ace bandage, I think just as a consolation prize because they figure everybody who comes into Urgent Care is expecting some kind of medical treatment.  

 

My leg looks fat when photographed from this angle, but the pedicure/flip-flop matching is impeccable. 

So, I will live to see another day, but I missed The Verve Pipe.  I asked the PR rep for the concert if I could still have a CD to do a giveaway, but I'm still awaiting her reply. 

Meanwhile, I had "The Freshmen" in my head all night.  And while Nathan was not guilt-stricken sobbing with his head on the floor, he did apologize for getting the whole floor wet.  I actually didn't blame him, because it was just an accident.  And if freshmen can't be held responsible, I can't exactly blame my four-year-old, either.