Tripping away

At lunchtime today, I went to the grocery store. Normally, we do our grocery shopping on Sunday. Actually, the Hubs does it 3 Sundays in a row and then it's my turn. It's a budget thing. That's how we've distributed the duties. But I always tend to buy the "extra" stuff that the Hubs would never buy. Yogurt covered raisins. Wheat germ. Carrots. Cinnamon raisin bread. Yeah. I splurge! [he-he-he]

I got out of my car and started to walk towards the entrance. I got a little distracted as I opened my purse and dropped my keys in. I took an extra moment to look inside to see if I remembered my cell phone. And in that moment? I tripped over a little bump on the sidewalk. Thankfully I landed on my feet. But I tripped. OBVIOUSLY tripped. And what did I do? I stood there and laughed out loud at myself. And then I continued walking into the store.

Every one of us has tripped. Over a bump on the sidewalk. On a curb. Over our own feet. It happens to us all at one time or another. And we've witnessed other people trip. Yes we have. That got me to thinking about tripping situations in my past.

When I was working in Phoenix when a bunch of us (about 10) went out to lunch. We went over to the Rosati's over on Broadway near ASU. Of course we went early so that we could find parking AND not have to wait a million years to get seating for 10. As there was a group of us, there were some that walked ahead and some of us hung towards the back. Then I saw one of our group in the first group trip over one of those speed bumps and bounce up as their tummy hit the asphalt. None of us could actually help our friend. We all saw it in slow motion. We came to our friends aide. Made sure there were no cuts or scrapes. Thankfully, there were none. Just a bit of embarrassment. But it was just us work buddies that witnessed it so it was all good.

Two summers ago, the Hubs and I went away to Chicago for one his business trips. He had to attend a conference for 4 days, so we arranged it so I could go with him. We had just arrived at our hotel (the Hilton on Michigan that's right across from Grant Park) and our room wasn't quite ready. We were starving, so we walked over to the outdoor patio area of their Irish restaurant. We were enjoying the scenery of a hot-humid Chicago day. The flowers were all brightly in bloom. The grass in the park was an intense green. The trees in the park had an immense canopy of leaves. It was lovely but humid. We were both looking across towards the park as we waited for our lunch. A group of women started to cross the street from where we were located and were headed towards the park. And for those of you who know Michigan Avenue, there's a street divider in the middle. Well, it seems that one of the ladies didn't remember that she was on it and walked off it as if she was stepping forward like normal. BUT she needed to step DOWN onto the street. Needless to say, I was shocked when this group of 6 ladies became 5. The one gal landed in the street. Of course, her friends were quickly around her and pulled her up. Made sure she was uninjured. Thankfully, from our vantage point she appeared unhurt and they continued on their walk to the park. Good for her that she had her friends around her.

Lest you think that I'm only going to only recollect trips by others....

When I was in college, I had a bunch of classes on the 2nd floor of the Business College. Yes. I was a business major. Anyway, none of us ever took the elevator. We all crowded towards the stairwells. Not a big deal. But this one time I was walking down with a friend talking about who knows what....when the tip of my shoe caught the edge of the stair. Of course, my foot goes flying forward in rochochet mode. And before I knew it? I jumped to the bottom of the stairwell. Thankfully, it was only 2 steps from the bottom and there was NO ONE in front of me. Can you imagine if there was some cutie in front of me and I landed on him? Oh boy! But everyone was going up and down the stairwell trying to get to their next class, so no one really noticed. Except my friend. She just looked at me with wide eyes and an open mouth smile. Like....DANG...what just happend?

When I was growing up, I was an acolyte in church. I was brought up Protestant and having a girl acolyte was allowed. I wanted to make that clear to my Catholic friends. We usually worked in pairs. Our duties were to light the candles on the altar, distribute the offering plates to the ushers, gather the offering plates from the ushers, and then extinguish the candles at the end of the service. Simple right? Well for some unknown reason, this one time I must have been in a daze. After I extinguished my 3 candles, my fellow acolyte and I started to walk down from the altar to the main level -- which was about 6 steps. And I don't KNOW what I was doing. I was only halfway down when I then stepped FORWARD (not down). Midway through my step I realized I was going to fall if I didn't jump. And so I bent my knee on the leg that still on the one step and jumped to the main level. There I stood and waited for my fellow acolyte to join me. Then we continued our walk down the center aisle of the church.

This last memory is my MOST INFAMOUS foible. Because I saw these people every single Sunday. My family all volunteered at this church. My Mom was a Sunday School teacher. My Dad would help out as an usher. And it was a large congregation. About 100 - 150 each week. So it's not like I would never see these people who witnessed my "trip". But now? It's one of those funny stories that my sisters' like to tell when we're reminiscing about when we were kids.

"OH!!! Remember when Grace almost took that tumble when she was an acolyte? She like JUMPED to the main area. And it was SO loud when she landed. Remember???"

Yeah. We've all tripped. What's your best or most memorable trip story?