Friday

I decided that doing the Portland Tri a week after Hood to Coast just wasn't cool enough. I needed to do something to increase the bad-ass factor, so I got four staples in my head.

Friday morning, we were packing up and getting ready to leave Corvallis when I needed to put one last thing into the trunk. We have one of those bike racks that mounts on the trunk, so I had to use both hands to lift the trunk open because the rack and bike are so heavy. I packed up what I needed to pack, then without thinking, I reached up and pulled the trunk closed. Something suddently slammed into the back of my neck and I fell over in the drive way. I curled up on the pavement holding my head and crying. After a moment, I got a hold of myself. I figured that laying in the drive way crying isn't going to do much good no matter how bad it hurts, I need to get in the house. I sat up - only to find blood streaming down my head into a pool on the pavement.

Oh. Fuck O_O

It took me a couple of panicked moments before remembering head wounds are going to bleed like nobody's business, this probably just looks really bad but it's nothing to flip out about.

By this time the neighbor across the street (who just moved in and we haven't had a chance to introduce ourselves to yet) comes running over to me and Chris comes flying out of the house. And now blood is coming down the side of my head too. They're trying to figure out what happened and what's bleeding. I look up at the bike on the car and realize that it was just the teeth on the gear ring that chomped my head. The same thing that recently happened to my leg has now happened to my head. Now I've completely calmed down, whatever is bleeding isn't hurting at all and I'm more annoyed that this happened when we're already running late than anything else.

Chris gets me a wet wash cloth to clean myself up and a baggy of ice for my neck. We assure the neighbor lady that we're going to go to the ER and everything's going to be alright. We get Hank-dog into the car and leave the house. I tell Chris I don't want to go to the ER because I don't want my hair messed up. (btw, my head's still bleeding and I'm on my second wash cloth because the first one is full of blood. I'm also annoyed because Chris grabbed the good wash clothes, not the old stained-up, crappy ones. What was he thinking, right? lol) Chris thinks that I must have brain damage and convinces me we'll just make a quick little stop in the urgent care center to see what they have to say.

Urgent care is just blocks from our house and they already have all our info on file, so we're able to be seen by a doctor with no waiting at all. The nurse gets the blood cleaned up and the doctor puts the staples in (no shaving my head - yay!). I was doing really good - no pain, nausea, light headness, ect - until that last staple. Suddenly I got very pale, clammy and felt ready to throw up and pass out. I felt better after just a few minutes, but the doctor made me lay back for a long time and had me do all these weird tests (like sticking my tongue out) before they said I was okay to leave. I guess no brain damage after all lol

Finally, we get on the road to Portland. I pick up my wetsuit from Athlete's Lounge. Because I need to keep my stample dry no swimming in Hagg Lake like I had planned. Poop. We get over to my in-laws and unpack the car. Taking the bike off the rack I finally figure out that the pedal must have been what hit the back of my head. We wash my hair to get all the dried blood out. Chris lets me take a nap before heading out to the wedding rehersal. (The care sheet from the ER says to have someone wake me up every few hours to make sure I know who and where I am lol)

I know absolutely no one at the wedding rehersal and Chris is only there to help reherse the sword arch. When everything was done, I told Chris I didn't want to go to the dinner too. The staples were beginning to make my head ache, plus I'm normally very shy and today I just wasn't in the mood to make chit chat with strangers (even if it mean free food and booze).

Their church was a couple blocks away from where Chris and I were married, so we walked over and took a couple of pictures in front of St Mary's. When we get back to the car, I discover that we don't have any Tylenol with us. The only logical thing: stop at the Crystal Ballroom for drinks and dinner lol

I had 3 lemon drops (I've been craving them like crazy lately) and Chris had 3 pints of Terminator Stout. Even after playing the most pathetic game of pool ever (30 minutes and we were no where near being done), Chris still wasn't good to drive. So we decide to walk down to the waterfront. On the way there, I spot a bar with $1.75 Jello Shots - heck yes! But the first bartender decided to go on a brake the second I sat down at the bar, and the other one was too busy chatting with some guys to serve me a drink. Boo to you Scooter's. We decided to leave, I'm thinking Huber's or Rialto, Chris says he wants more Terminator. We start walking towards the other McMeniman's on 10th, when - huzzah!- the street car comes along. We run to catch it like we're a couple of high school dorks. A few short stops later and we're back in front of our first apartment. We take a couple of pictures then head into the pub.

Chris is busy calling other Marines to try and get the sword arch squared away. Apparently not everyone had a sword, so they decided that all the Marines - both enlisted and officers - would use the officer sword. Chris was trying to find enough SNCO swords for those who needed it, but he was too busy talking to be doing drinking. When I got to the bar, I ordered him a pint and me two shots and a rum+coke. He was still talking. So I ordered another shot. Still talking. A vodka+7up. Finally, Chris gets off the phone (which is good because I'm pretty sure the bartender was getting close to cutting me off seeing how I'm the size of a smurf and I've had 5 drinks and no food or water in about 30 minutes).

We decide to start walking back towards Burnside, when - huzzah! - Max comes along. We jump on for ride down to the water front. Chris sees the cinemas by Pioneer Courthouse Square and decides he wants to see a movie. We get off at the next stop so he can look up what's playing on his iPhone. He finds Tropic Thunder starts in 2 minutes at the mall. So we run down the street to the mall, run up the escalators, he gets the tickets and I get the popcorn. We get settled down just as the last of the trailers start rolling.

Funny freakin movie! I don't want to spoil anything, so go see it lol

All in all, a pretty crazy but awesome day :)