Some of you know that I purchased two very lovely pictures (this one and this one) from Tracy’s pal at work, Matt Higby. He resized and matted these photos to fit a 24″ x 36″ frame because I want to hang them in my living room. The frames I’d originally wanted to use were the same design as others in the space, only bigger. But when I put the photos in them they didn’t look as good as I’d envisioned; the frames were more obvious than the gorgeous photos.

Since mom’s always on the hunt for more yarn and we’re regulars at Poway’s Michaels because of it, I headed to their frame department to see what they might have while we were there yesterday. Noting that their prefab frame sale was still going on, I mosied over to the shelves. There were perfect frames - thin, black-stained wood - on the top shelf. I reached for one and set it down at floor height. I looked up because I wanted to get a second one and found it was already headed floor side. In other words, it was falling for me…or rather, on me.

The edge of the frame smacked me right across the bridge of my nose. I felt the glass bang against my forehead. One of the customers rushed over to steady me as I wavered. A framechick from the custom framing counter ran over.

“Are you ok?” the customer asked. My hand was on my forehead. “If I’m not bleeding, I should be ok,” I replied. The framechick grabbed the fallen frame. “I think your frames are stacked too far forward,” I told her. I looked up at the shelf; there was still a full complement of frames, held in place by a steel arm to prevent this kind of thing from happening. My two frames (the one I took and the one that fell) were both in front of this barrier.

Since no amount of shopping was making the pain go away, I asked for the manager because there needed to be a report. You see, that framechick who had rushed over when I’d gotten hit…disappeared. Gone. Couldn’t find her again. I couldn’t even tell you what she looked like except she had short, light-colored hair. Maybe light brown, maybe platinum blonde, WTF do I know after an incident like this?! The weekend manager was the one who filled out the report and promised to call today to check on me.

My little gang - two kids and OSM — made our way to Carmel Mountain Road because OSM urgently required an obscure herbal remedy that’s only sold (in this area) at The Vitamin Shoppe. We were in the store for perhaps 20 minutes when my head began throbbing. No one else was going to drive so I cut our shopping trip short and got us home before I very nearly passed out in the living room. Today I have a raging headache and my nose is swollen but by the grace of God it hasn’t taken on that bruised look yet. Blinking my eyes hurts. Smiling hurts. Furrowing my brow is not allowed.

If this continues into tomorrow I’ll be at Urgent Care for an X-ray.

There’s truth to the saying that you can learn something new every day. I learned yesterday that a 24″ x 36″ frame, however thin the wood may be, is extremely heavy when it falls on the bridge of your nose. The pain in that region radiates to your forehead and eyes. Compound this with a preexisting sinus condition and suddenly you’re a very disconcerted (and extremely disoriented) customer. And anyone who knows anything about me at all knows that whatever cuts my shopping forays short has to be incredibly dire, indeed.

On the plus side, no one - not even God - would pin this on Higby, even though he is somehow involved =)