47/365

**WARNING**

This post contains blood.

I don't really care to censor you so I didn't think twice about this picture, but just in case you're super squeamish, the picture is down below rather than up top.

About a year ago I decided to buy some rollerblades (guess where this is going). I love to rollerblade. Used to go all the time when I was younger with the kids on the block and at the roller rink down the street. We did the flying V and fidgeted during couple skate.

One time I got asked to couple skate and it sent my cousin, Chelsea, crying to the bathroom. I don't know why she liked him. All I remember is that he was really short. And um, I don't remember if I accepted but I must have because she cried in the bathroom. Sorry, Chels.

I used the rollerblades only once. The day I bought them. I skated about 1.5 miles down the street to go to church Wednesday after work. I stayed in the bike lane, but the bike lane was only a few feet away from the flying cars going down the uneven mean streets of Brooklyn. I'm fairly careless about my safety, so I didn't control my speed there and back, but I was smart enough to decide I'd wait to skate again until I had some knee pads or a helmet.

Of course, I never bought them. But the weather around here has been so amazing. I've been outside every day this week enjoying the sunny 60s and ever day I've been wanting to rollerblade. So today I did. And it was sort of a disaster.

I went to the lake trail and it was completely empty and beautiful. No fast cars. No people to maneuver around. I went one mile around and was feeling pretty good and then I hit a puddle and I barely fell. One knee to the pavement and two fingers in the grass. It burned a little but I just really wanted to keep going. So I did. And then I looked down and was a little surprised by the red and by...the chunkiness going on. It looked a little chunky. I didn't think chunks came out of your knees. But I really wanted to keep going.

I actually was feeling pretty good. I can't remember the last time I flat out scraped my knee. It was sort of awesome. I think battle wounds are stories. A person without a scar must be coward and a bore. They must have never rollerbladed by themselves around a man-made lake.

But then I ran my hand along a wooden post and it was kind of funny but not really. I looked down at the chunk and I figured maybe I should go home. So I reached for my keys, which were in my bra, because where else are you going to put them? And low and behold, gone. Really not funny. You can't exactly get on your hands and knees with rollerblades on and a chunky knee. Where I fell was right next to where the water flows into the lake. I really didn't want to go in there.

So I started skating around again, really slowly, all adrenaline gone, so my knee was starting to throb. Thankfully, I found them pretty much right away. In the grass near my fall.

The neighborhood dogs barked (felt like laughing) as I struggled outta there defeated. Driving back, my knee started to throb but all I could think about...was taking a picture...and blogging about it. Who wouldn't want to see my bloody knee? So I took the picture. Then I cleaned it with water and peroxide and I got myself some ice cream. Yep. I'm reverting back to my childhood. Feels good.

47/365, originally uploaded by britrosewhite.