by Angelina Brown

Created on: May 10, 2008

I used to get the most interesting emails from my sister when she lived in Florida. I would sit in the computer lab at the university and laugh until everyone stared at me. I miss those days. Nowadays, we're much too busy to read out emails, let alone actually send messages to each other. Still, I remember them fondly. My favorite started out innocently enough. The subject was: I got off work early.

I should put it in context. My sister lived in Orlando in a second-floor apartment with her boyfriend, who shall remain nameless but for other reasons. She worked as a technical support operator for a company that provides service for a company with black and white spotted boxes. And she was (and still is) a bit clumsy. It's a family trait. I don't consider it a normal week until I've whacked my head on something.

Anyway, my sister got off work early and decided she was going to fix dinner for her boyfriend as a special treat. They both worked so much that they usually ended up going out or ordering in. So, she stopped at the market to buy supplies-I did mention the ordering in and going out, right? And she, naturally, got the one cart in the entire store that was directly related to a dodo. One wheel refused to turn, another wheel was determined to head off at ninety degrees from the rest. This cart caused her no end of trouble, culminating in a run-in with a display of canned green beans near the checkouts. After recovering from the embarrassment of knocking down the entire display, my sister took her groceries and went home.

After limping up the stairs (she'd fallen up the stairs the week before and chipped her kneecap so climbing the stairs was painful), my sister set about emptying the dishwasher and starting dinner. It being Florida in June, she was barefoot and wearing shorts and a tank top. This normally isn't a concern. But on this particular day, as she was emptying the dishwasher, my sister dropped a glass and it broke into shards all over the open dishwasher door and the floor around it. So, naturally, the first step she took, my sister stabbed her foot with a large piece of glass. Hobbling out of the kitchen, the ball of her foot elevated to keep from getting blood on the carpet, my sister noticed more blood on her shin. Bending over, she realized she'd been cut by a piece of flying glass. At that particular moment her injured knee decided to give out and she went down, smacking her head on the hall wall.

Pulling herself to her feet, she limped into the

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