Just Blame it on the Baked Beans!

As the self-proclaimed queen of multi-tasking, I’m often running around like a chicken with its head lopped off while burning a candle at both ends AND in the middle. Today was one of those days, in typical Saturday fashion, as I tried to get a week’s worth of errands stuffed into the one hour I had to run while Mom was at the beauty shop getting her weekly hair-do.

First stop was Sam’s Club, where I stocked up on some essentials to the tune of $120. I was in a bit of a hurry to get in and out, until I ran into the new guy at work, only two weeks here from France, wandering about the place like a lost puppy. His English is not particularly good, but after about 10 minutes, I had explained to him that he had to pay to join Sam’s and the prices were good if you wanted to buy in bulk. I told him smaller quantities were more affordable at Marc’s. Then I realized what he was really looking for was someplace to take his laptop that had been invaded by a virus. I drew him a map from Sam’s to Staples, where they have people who fix those sorts of issues.

I raced out of there, packed the haul in the hatchback, stopped at BP to fill my tank, and then made a quick stop at McDonald’s, not because I was hungry, but because my diuretic kicked in and I was nowhere near anyplace else I could stop. This was followed by a run to the local health food store to see if my order of Yogi Tea had arrived…no such luck.

Then I delayed picking up Mom so that I could stop at Marc’s and get the few items I hadn’t gotten at Sam’s. This was a mistake. I grabbed a cart and raced up one aisle and down the next, only hitting the ones containing items I needed. I found an empty check-out line and started loading the conveyor belt with my purchases, when a 40-ounce can of Bush’s Vegetarian Baked Beans slid out of the cart and landed on my right foot. In spite of the fact that I had on heavy leather shoes, the darn thing broke my little toe.

Now, I’m limping around on a very sensitive foot with a toe that is swollen, bruised, and unable to bend at all without excruciating pain. All because of a can of baked beans! Whoever came up with the saying “Cool Beans” never had a 40-ounce can fall on their foot!

Worse is the fact that they can’t do anything for it. Other than taping it to the next toe for support, you just have to let it alone. Why I continue to break bones that can’t be “fixed” or “casted” is beyond me, but since I have to blame something, Bush’s Beans takes the hit!

A Literal Pain in the Rear

In the never-ending quest to be thin and beautiful, I went walking with a coworker on Wednesday during lunch. Unfortunately, I neglected to switch from my slipper-comfortable flat Cobbie Cuddlers into a decent pair of running shoes. I paid the price for that oversight when I was awakened from a sound sleep that very night with excruciating pain up the fronts of both shins.

In an effort to relieve the pain, I jumped out of bed and promptly fell, breaking my tailbone and wrenching my neck in the process. To say that I'm a "hurtin' unit" is to put it mildly. Of course, life goes on. It was work as usual on Thursday and today...though I have to admit that getting my butt into the driver's seat was extremely painful. Tonight, I only managed to make it home, eat dinner, watch an hour of TV and then head up to bed because the neck was hurting as much as the rear end.

Not one to sleep for hours, I woke up a little after 11 p.m. and I'm sitting here in the quiet of the house, typing away and wishing I had a bottle of my pomegranate zin in the fridge! Unable to take any of the anti-inflammatory medications on the market, I'm limited to Tylenol, so wine is looking pretty good from an anesthetic point of view! It is the weekend, after all. And it will pretty much go on as scheduled.

This weekend's offerings include a trip to the beauty salon for Mom, the usual Saturday errands (bank, post office, groceries), a scheduled stop at a friend's house (bearing comfort food and libation), laundry, the mother-daughter breakfast at church, as well as another Eagle Scout Court of Honor. Somewhere in there I have to fit a stop at K-Mart or Wal-Mart to pick up a new watchband (something else that was broken in the fall) and a stop at the fabric store to pick up the material for the baby gift project.

And so, life rolls on!