A painful start to the morning

Amber woke me up at 4 this morning saying her name. Clear as a bell I hear her say "Amb-uh", which is how I say it. If I pronounced it "Amb-er" then I'd sound like an American. Which I am, of course. I was naturalized last year, but I'm also still an Australian. The most apt description is that I'm an Australian who thinks like an American.

So for the next 20 minutes or so Amber is in her cot, talking to herself and playing with her toy dog that goes "Wow! Wow! Wow!" "Pant, pant, pant.", etc.

She finally dozes off and I get back to sleep, only to be woken 30 minutes later when my alarm goes off. I gather my clothes and decide that with Amber only just getting back to sleep I'll get dressed downstairs. I head downstairs with an armful of clothes and half-way down I miss a step.

Fortunately I had both my legs out in front so there was no chance of wrenching a knee or breaking a lower limb, but I also had my clothes in my left arm so I had no chance of catching myself either. I think I slipped down a couple of steps, catching myself with my right arm braced on one step. My left elbow either hit the wall or smacked against the steps, which are carpeted so they're a little softer than wooden steps. But I now have carpet burn on my left elbow, my lower back is sore and I think I jarred my neck a little bit.

Did I mention a while back my neck was all messed up and clicking when I turned my head to the right and back? Well that finally went away after several repeated, loud, almost painful neck pops.

Now my neck hurts again and I really feel like I need to pop it. I don't think I should though. I don't think it's out of alignment (although that's possible) I think it's more that I just jarred it, and it needs time to recover.

What a great start to the morning.

I'm working on my regular day off for the next month or so to accrue time off for a vacation in November. So I'm at work today when I'd much rather have just crawled back into bed after falling down the stairs.

On a positive note, coz I believe in looking on the bright side, I'm heading out to Santa Monica this evening to watch the Aussie Rules Grand Final (think Super Bowl) with a good mate of mine who is actually a supporter of one of the two teams in tonight's game. Gonna be a late night. The game doesn't start until 9pm (2pm Saturday in Australia) and won't be over until at least midnight. Then it's a good 30-45 minute drive from Santa Monica back home afterwards. We're going to Santa Monica because there's an English Pub there which shows the Grand Final every year, and all the Aussies know this, so this is a communal thing as well.

I could just watch the game at home tonight but I'd miss all of the atmosphere that will be present at the Pub. I just hope for my mate's sake that the Sydney Swans win...and for mine too, coz they're who I'll be barracking for. Unfortunately, whenever I watch a game, the team I am barracking for almost always loses. Like 98% of the games I've watched, the team I've been cheering for has gone down. And I can't use this to my benefit and root for the team I want to lose, because we all know curses don't work that way. Despite what you're saying out loud, the curse knows what's in your heart, so the team you're secretly rooting for will still lose.

You might as well just be true to your heart, cheer out loud for the team you really want to win, and not be too disappointed when they lose like you knew they were destined to do.