2005-04-23
"we don't want blood, okay?"
I have a deep gash underneath my right eye. It will probably leave a fairly obvious scar on my face, evidence of a coincidental, but slightly comical event that occurred today at Managaha.
Here's the story:
The MHS Mock Trial Team went to Managaha today for a long overdue celebration for the great job we did at this year's tournament. After a few intitial setbacks (like the reservations on the boat being fucked up, and us leaving three members on the dock at Saipan), we got to the beautiful "Jewel of the Marianas." Prayer and a small picnic ensued when we got there. Shortly thereafter, Candace and I leave with April to go snorkeling. That was the fun part of the day. Managaha is a great place to go snorkeling, really. Just be careful for tiny parrotfish protecting their eggs. They are ferocious.
This is where the good stuff comes in:
So Candace and I are swimming around near the shore, and we see a barracuda-looking fish in the water with small, but plentiful sharp teeth lined across its jaw swimming near the surface of the water. We think nothing of it, since we kept a good distance away from it. But some stupid tourist couple happen to around it, and try to touch it. Not smart. So, as you could imagine, the fish got slightly annoyed and started charging at the couple. Seeing as how we were nearby, Candace and I swam over to try to fend off the evil fish, waving our arms simultaneously in the water around it. Eventually the thing swam away. But not before it took a nice bite out of my face.
So here I am now, with a huge band-aid under my eye, while the mark still bleeds profusely. Sheesh.
..
..
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Just kidding. There was no barracuda-thingy. Actually, there was, but it was just an eaglefish. Harmless, really. Everything really did happen, up until the part in italics. That's the story I plan on telling everyone about the new scar on my face since the real story isn't half as exciting.
I really did manage to make a wound on my face before we left Managaha. We set a few guidelines before we got off the boat to the island:
Pretty simple, right? I almost made it through the day without breaking anyone of the rules, but knowing how accident-prone I am, I knew something was going to happen anyway. And I was right.
Here's the real story:
After Candace, April, and I finished swimming, we decided to talk the long way around Managaha back to the dock, walking around the island. Now, on the left side of the island there are a lot of rocks that you have to walk on to pass. These rocks are sharp and not comfortable in the least. So as we were walking over them, I was looking down to make sure I didn't hurt myself. If I knew what was going to happen next, it wouldn't have made any difference.
As soon as we were off the rocks, I brought my head up from looking down at the rocks and walked right into a fallen tree trunk. My face was the only thing to hit the branch, and a twig from the branch got me right under the eye, and broke off. Right under my eye. So I had a inch-long twig hanging from my face, pinched into my skin pretty deep. I never really got to look at it because I knew that if I did, I'd probably freak out immensely and make a complete ass out of myself even more. Needless to say, I began to bleed quickly, but I was pretty damn happy that I didn't lose an eye, since the twig was only about 2 or 3 millimeters away from my eye. But I was still pissed that I got into a predicament like that only 10 minutes before the boat arrives. I almost made it through the day without fucking up!
So we hurry over back to the picnic table, me with my blood-soaked towel. Candace and April kept telling me along the way about how bad thw wound looked and how the twig was in really deep and how I shouldn't touch it or try to take it out and how I would probably need stitches. [Big rule for me: No needles, and no acidic substances like alcohol or peroxide, please.] I showed everyone else back at the table what had happened, and they all pretty much said the same thing. So they walk me over to the First Aid station where who else but The Ken is working at, completely unbeknownst to me. [Thank jeebus I wasn't crying or complaining about it when I got there or else I would have totally screwed myself over. Actually, I'm surprised at how calm I was about the whole thing, since, according to JB, I had a twig hanging down my face covered in blood.] At the station, I get stared at and inspected, and they remove the twig rather easily, to my surprise, and put a band-aid on it. Voila, all was well.
Now all I have to do is wait for the bleeding to stop and the bruising to go away and everything will just be dandy. It's too bad I didn't get to take pictures of it; no one brought cameras! I didn't even get to keep the twig after they pulled it out. Hmph.
tipsydrunk at 11:47 p.m.
