The Nighttime

Interesting things happen when it’s nighttime. To wit: my friends and I threw a prom of sorts on Saturday night. It was nominally a birthday party for me (36) and Anna (three-oh!) but, as I said in the invitation, mostly an excuse for us to get dressed up in fancy clothes and sway to the musical stylings of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Of course, we also told people they could wear pajama pants if they wanted to.

In the planning phase, we tried to come up with a suitable venue. We weren’t sure how many people would show up. I didn’t trust my mansion to hold the crowd so we asked the owner of CrossFit Durham if we could have it there and, being the coolest ever, he said yes.

Do you remember going to your elementary school at night, like when your mom had a PTA meeting or something? Remember how weird it seemed? The light was different, no lines of second-graders waiting to put their germy cheeks against the water fountain spigot. You’d pick up a pencil, and it just wouldn’t seem like the same implement as it did between 8:00 and 2:30. That’s a little how it was being at CFD without the overheads on, without the grunting.

Four of us had spent an hour hanging up glittery stars and white Christmas lights on the pull-up bars. Anna had had the presence of mind to bring floor lamps, so we could turn off the fluorescents, thank god. Lindsay made an awesome polaroid frame (see pic below). And that was it! We were ready for prom.

Now only 20 people came—I don’t know if folks were scared off by the prom theme or what—but those of us who were there had a ridiculously fun time. The equipment we use for WODs? Suddenly it all became props in our prom farce.

That’s not how you hold a sledgehammer; I just wanted to make sure my corsage was visible.
(Something jokey jokey joke. Pull-up bar while wearing a push-up bra. Nope. I don’t have it.)

That big open space we use to do burpees? Well, that was the dancefloor.

I lasted 57 minutes in the heels before I took them off. That’s 37 minutes longer than I promised.

Anyway, IT WAS SO FUN.

All because it was nighttime in the gym.

Of course, last night, I woke up because my foot was all sting-y. I got out of bed and went into the bathroom to look at the sore spot. The underside of my ring toe was cut, right where the toe meets the foot. I washed it, slathered it in Neosporin, stuck a band-aid on it, and crawled back in bed.

But just as the elementary school library looks like a labyrinth after 7:00pm, ideas take different shape in the nighttime. I started spinning tales in my head. See, my friend M had a blister about this time last year, and maybe it was the State Fair and maybe it was the gym, but somehow that tiny foot wound sent her to the hospital with a staph infection. In the nighttime, with me in my bed, it seemed not only plausible that that would happen to me but an absolute done deal.

But nighttime doesn’t stop there. In the few months after her hospital stay, M’s house got robbed, and she got breast cancer. (Talk about all-time worst years, right?) So there I am last night, in the fetal position, certain that I’m going to lose everything I own and need a double mastectomy. Stupid nighttime.

This morning, after my coffee, I soaked my foot in salty water and applied more antiseptic cream, and I sit here pretty sure that I won’t be coming home to a pillaged house after my chemo treatment in a few months.

But I’m still worried I’m headed for the ER in a day or two.

Daytime. Bah!

12 thoughts on “The Nighttime”

  1. What does that mean, Lindsay? I’ve gone over the deep end? Yes. Yes, I have. And do, on a regular basis. That’s why I file many of my posts in the Call Me Crazy category.

  2. I wish you were not wasting your night thinking this. M just had really bad coincidences. And genes. You are not M.

    The prom decorations were awesome. Especially the photo thing.

    Linds is right. Tighten the eff up.

  3. I know, Melinda! Total series of horrible coincidences! My point was, I get a little crazy sometimes. Especially in the nighttime.

    I still don’t know what ‘tighten up’ means.

  4. it means stop thinking about dumb stuff that may not ever happen, and focus on planning our next party or prom or trip to the fair where Melinda DOES NOT get staph.

    1. OK! Got it! Just FYI, I use this blog as a sort of confessional of my ridiculous worries, so you may feel the urge to say “tighten up” a lot. (Nine times out of 10, I know I’m being ridiculous.)

  5. Oh. That’s what ‘tighten up’ means. Here I assumed Lindsay was recommending that you do some Kegels.

    Non-staphylococcal trip to the fair? Sign me up!

  6. Tighten up is a phrased oft used by our old pal Mandy J. who disappeared off the face of the planet. She would say it when we complained or whined about stuff or when we were being ridiculous or when we doubted how much we could lift, etc etc. If tighten up were a skill in the class, it would probably be wise mind.

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