injured

In the end, 11.4 inches accumulate overnight.  By morning, the roads and sidewalks are mostly cleared.  Pristine white snow remains on cars, but everywhere else the snow is a smoky grey.

Valerie calls before noon and invites me to dinner at The Post House, a great New York restaurant.  Her sister-in-law Jill is celebrating a birthday and the family is getting together.

I cautiously walk to the bus stop, as there are still pockets of hidden ice dotting the streets. I get on the bus, and as I am getting off, I slip on the stairs and slide down to the street on my back.  Aside from being stunned, I am bruised, but nothing is broken. 

I arrive at the restaurant, greet everyone, take off my coat, and see blood on the elbow of my favorite white blouse.  My sister helps me and we go to the restroom to take a look.  She concludes that the cut on my right elbow is deep, and I probably need stitches.   Emergency room on an icy Saturday night during flu season?  I can't think of a place I'd less like to be.  While my sister and I are debating what to do, a woman comes into the restroom and overhears us.  “My daughter is a doctor, why don’t I get her and see what she thinks?”  Her lovely daughter soon joins us in what's becoming a crowded restroom.  She concludes that it’s a borderline gash.   “You probably could use a stitch,” she says.  I tell her I don't care about a scar.  She says, "It's not for the aesthetics, you'd get a stitch to avoid an infection."  The small bathroom starts to feel overwhelmingly hot and claustrophobic.  My head starts spinning. I feel like I could faint — this has nothing to do with the doctor's suggestion for a stitch.

I sit down at the bar, get some water, and my nephew orders me a car (through an amazing app called Uber).  But soon the wooziness goes away.  I am encouraged to stay, and I do.

Dinner is fabulous.  There are ten of us in all. The food is exceptional (I get my usual strip steak), and there is an abundance of laughter.  I am so glad I stayed.  Tomorrow I'll worry about my elbow (and getting the bloodstain out of my blouse).