The following is not a humorous sarcastic tale for I am not in the mood.
As some of you know it has been a rough semester for me. I go to school 1 hour shy of "full time", took on a second job, and have been having a hellish time at work. Lately with the economy in a horrific state and retail teetering toward oblivion its been rough. Most of the semester I had absolutely no free time but recently Z has been cutting my hours in a dramatic fashion. Im talking hours in the teens, and this week I was only scheduled 11 hours (thats right 11 not 40). This winter break was supposed to be my money making month but my plan had backfired. There would be very little in the way of Christmas presents this year. How was I going to pay for school?? How was I going to continue paying off last semester?? These are some of the questions causing my insomnia as of late. However options began to surface with other companies. Things were looking up. I made decision where to go and suddenly this past Monday I had a accident at work.
It may sound silly but a cart of merchandise fell on me while I was unloading the truck. It doesn't sound like much but it was actually one of the scariest work related moments I have had (trust me I have had a few). The carts we use are metal bakers racks about 7 feet tall. We had loaded one up with quite a few boxes and a very large and heavy mirror. The wind (as horrible as it was Monday morning) blew the cart and it began to roll down the sidewalk toward the street. I decided I was going to catch it. Running down the street I managed to grab it right as it swung around and fell off the curb. I pride myself on being rather strong but this thing took me down faster than I could even think of reacting. I lay there with my fingers touching the top of my wrist and my toes up by my head and thought I finally had broken a major bone. I kept thinking of all the football tackles I have seen where the player went down with his leg bent behind him. The evil silver linebacker had got me.
After I was talked into it we went on our way to a work comp approved doctor. This sounds like an easy task but we drove around for 3 hours trying to find some place to go. We called KU Med, Truman, and Research asking for the offices that Z Gallerie had given us.....NONE of them knew of the offices that we had that were supposedly in their programs. We stopped by one place that actually had two large rooms filled with mentally handicapped people assembling boxes. They sent us to a office above Mr. Goodcents on Main. We called that phone number and it was a personal voice mail. When we drove by there were tiny individual stickers that spelled out medical office......no thank you! I envisioned a voodoo woman using chicken feet to heal me. Next stop was in the St. Lukes medical plaza. Z Gallerie had assured us that they called the office and I would be seen at this location. We park, ride the elevator up, get to an office and "i'm sorry you are not in our system we know nothing about this, we can't see you." As I walk discouraged with a trash bag 1/4 way full of water (formerly ice) we move on. The next stop finally worked out for us even though they didn't have us in the system either they fixed the problem. They said its probably a sprain, set me up with pain pills, physical therapy, and restrictions. We finally got back to the store at 2 pm more than 6 hours after the mishap.
The worry started to set in. Not about my injury but about money, rent, lifetime fitness class and so-on. Is my sick pay only half of my salary? Are they only going to pay me for 11 hours a week? How am I going to start my new job? Well to make another long part of my story short I am not able to start at my new job, the position may even be filled by the time I get better. And I will probably not be able to receive an A or B for my lifetime fitness class seeing as I was counting on these final weeks to get my points. However angels were singing as the silver lining to my injury presented itself. Not only will I be paid 100% of my salary I will be paid 40 hours a week! Merry Christmas! My never calling in sick and dedication to the job finally paid off. It took a sprained knee but oh well. I will be able to pay rent next month, buy a few Christmas presents, and be able to continue paying for my New York trip.
All is not over with this debacle but with the good news it wont be as horrific as I thought. Let this be a cautionary tale about procrastination and unsafe heroics. As your own personal Tiny Tim Cratchit, crutches and all, I proclaim "God bless us, every one."