Learning to walk again

One year ago today, I had afternoon plans to meet my friend at the cinema in Chiang Mai to see the new Spiderman flick.  To kill time, I decided to try and find a quaint little cafe I had found on one of my "get lost in the city adventure walks" the week before.  Making a mental note of visual cues when I first stumbled upon Good Morning Chiang Mai, I was successful at finding it again, nestled away among side soi's (streets) and temples.  I knew Good Morning Chiang Mai was going to become a favourite haunt of mine with its lovely loft, comfy chairs and couches, rustic and vintage-ness, and delicious food (and coffee).  I spent a good three hours sitting there, drinking coffee and reading A Clash of Kings, the second book in George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones - A Song of Fire and Ice series.

I still had about an hour before I was supposed to meet my friend, so I decided to walk to the other side of the city to find my favourite smoothie lady, Anne.  Little did I know then that Anne's smoothie shop is closed on Sundays...knowledge that could have been extremely useful at the time - and could have stopped the events that took place on my walk.

Like any normal walk through the city of Chiang Mai, to cross the street you pretty much have to step out in front of traffic - unless you want to be standing on the corner for the rest of your life.  Like a thousand times before, I judged that I had enough room to walk between an on-coming van and the motorbike behind it.  As crazy as traffic is in Thailand, cars and bikes slow down and/or stop when you're in the street.  However, this one time, I judged incorrectly.  Game Over, Kaycee.  The motorbike behind the van had 3 girls on it...all under driving age.  I'd like to think that the driver of the bike was busy talking to her friends rather than paying attention to the road because, seriously - who doesn't see the fat kid crossing the street?

Frogger: Game Over
Waah - waah - waaaaaaahhhhh

Anyways, you know the story.  I was taken to the emergency room with a torn ankle ligament, thrown into a cast for 6 weeks and crutches for 3 months.  Besides being over weight, I've been lucky enough to never have had any serious health issues, so this has been a big shit storm of physical and emotional pain for me over the last year.  One of the biggest things that bothers me about the whole situation is that the girl that hit me doesn't even know what kind of physical and emotional pain her irresponsibleness caused.  To her, she just hit a farang (foreigner) once.  It's because of this that some days, I really hate her.

This accident kept me from doing a lot more of what I wanted to do while in Thailand.  Adventures that I was waiting to do until I had enough money and/or someone to do something with.  I couldn't do my jungle trek.  I couldn't ride on the back of an elephant and have it dunk me in a river.  I had a plan to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro this coming December - which definitely isn't going to happen now.  I want to go hiking here in Korea, but even walking uphill turns into a battle with every step.  It fucking sucks balls. 

Many people told me that tearing a ligament is worse than breaking a bone.  I didn't realize how emotionally painful it is as well. 

However, from this point, I'm not going to let this injury affect me negatively anymore.  I'm going to get my weight under control, which will greatly help.  I'm going to climb Kilimanjaro.  I'm going to trek through a jungle (probably not in Thailand...).  I'm also going to learn how to dive.  I'm probably not going to do the elephant thing, because I feel really sorry for them.  Yes.  From this point on, the ankle is not going to be a negative part of my life anymore.  One year of feeling sorry for myself is enough.  So do me a favour, if you hear me talking about it, slap me and tell me to stop.

Also, do me another favour.  Pay attention when you're driving.

Happy Uphill Trails!

P.S.  I still haven't seen Spiderman, but hooray for the Foo Fighters!