Smooth Until the Last Moment

Well, I may have a new chapter in art making coming up. I may have to channel Freida Kahlo for a little bit. When our flight finally arrived in Portland after a delay, (no big deal), I turned my knee awkwardly while lugging my pastels and a heavy bag. I heard a sickening “pop” and then came the searing pain. Adrenaline is what got me off the plane and into the terminal.

I’m so lucky my mom was with me on the trip, because she got me water and made sure I could make it through the concourse. Miraculously we made it to baggage claim, not sure how. Once we where there, I’d convinced myself that my knee was OK, that is until I tried to lift one of my heavy bags off the carousel and crumpled once again to the floor. Damn. With the kindness of strangers, we gathered all our bags and headed out to get a tram to the parking lot. Not so fast. Something was happening at PDX. Emergency vehicles were formed to prevent traffic from entering the arrival area. Nobody in to pick up passengers. There were hundreds of people lined up for the trams to the outlying parking lots! Just as we made our way into the fray, I happened to see one tram down at the far end of the terminal and also saw one guy that was rolling his luggage in the empty street rather than through the now crowded sidewalk. On instinct, I turned our bloated luggage cart around 180 degrees, called to my mom to follow and headed to the last tram. Later, we found out that someone had left a backpack outside of the terminal and that they’d called in the bomb squad to clear it.

Only another miracle got us on that tram with all our stuff and me almost crawling on!! YIkes. I don’t really know how we did it!!

So apparently, the sickening pop was most likely my ACL, so says the orthopedic surgeon. If you’ve followed my blog, you know that I’m also a dancer and need that ACL, just like I need my pastels. Dancing keeps me sane, so it’s not even a question whether or not to repair it or to repair it in a way that doesn’t allow for full use. So, MRI tomorrow morning, then juggling of schedules and then lots of mindfulness and surrender!! Maybe it won’t be the ACL!!

So, note to self: Don’t lug too much stuff, especially when you are tired.

Wish me luck. I’ll keep you posted!