nickface, bustedface

e-mail I received from my mom moments ago: "I thought that you would take a picture of Nickface's face and post it on your blog. You take pictures of your injured car, your injured bike but not your injured Nick?" apparently the public demands drama (with pics!)

8:01 am I am awakened from my 4th attempt at sleeping-in (yes I'm trying to do this as much as possible before the dreaded school year begins next monday at 7:45 am) by my cheerful alarm clock with its cheerful ring and on the other end of the line is a not so cheerful nickface and a

"can you come pick me up"

"um ok, did you have another flat on your bike"

"no I wrecked my bike and smashed my face. bring something to sop up the blood"

and I'm out the door, hat shoved on my just got out of bed ponytailed-head brand new roll of paper towels in hand.

and then I'm back in the door, perhaps I should put on real pants instead of my polka dot pj pants, oh and a bra, probably don't want to be standing on northwestern's campus loading a bike into a car dealing with a bloody boy without slightly more presentable attire.

8:15 am nearly to campus, phone gives its cheerful ring again and on the other end

"are you almost here? people keep asking me if I'm ok"

I was coming as fast as I could, but this made me want to come faster, because well we don't like to talk to people.

drive up to a boy sitting on the sidewalk next to his bike, side of face COVERED in blood. head wounds bleed. bleed like it's their job.

load bike into car, drive around till we find student health services, since this isnt the kind of thing you walk into a new doctor for for the first time, get nick all bandaged up, and then head to the emergency room, since apparently this isnt the kind of thing you just stumble into health services about either (it's not mono after all...not mono by any stretch of any imagination, not even a university health services doctor's imagination, and thus out of their league).

check into the ER, apparently it's head trauma day here as the person in front of nick is in with a bleeding head wound in the back of the head. take our seats for the short wait...(side note...will always try to plan future emergencies for before 9 am...not so crowed then). Nick goes back, I call my mom, mom tells me I'm a bad girlfriend for not going-in with him, I ask nice security guard if Im allowed back there, nice security guard lets me in and gets me a stool, and I resume the roll of the good girlfriend just in time for the boyfriend who is scared of needles to get his tetanus shot.

tetanus shots hurt, he opted for concentrated pain all in the same arm. x-rays taken, numbing shots to the face (this time I'm totally there ready to be the hand-holding-good-in-a-crisis-girlfriend that I am), 12 stitches later, and the doctor gives us the clearance to go, letting me know to watch for weirder than normal behavior indicative of a more serious head trauma.

and we return home. scraped-and-sore boyfriend nick, ready-to-be-strong-and-carry-heavy-bike-up-three-stairs-then-administer-tylenol-on-a-6-hour-regiment-girlfriend me.