More than I can bear

I am a bit clumsy. Sometimes it is in my control, sometimes things just happen around me and I get to sort it out. In my control would be running along the sidewalk one day and tripping over a crack and getting laid out on the sidewalk in a most dramatic fashion. I can still see my discman (this was a while ago) sliding away from me on the concrete. Since I had recently watched Rudy, I decided to pick myself up and keep running. By the time I got home, I had blood down well into my sock.

Clumsy is jogging slowly in soccer practice and tripping over a clump of grass, which resulted in a broken ankle.

Here is an example that is not in my control: Today, I sat on the bed in Eli's room and heard a giant BOOM! Let me be clear here, I didn't sit on a mini bed, or a crib, I broke the double bed. Eli asked me about the noise. I told him that what likely happened was the uneven weight distribution that the end of the bed had suddenly sustained. I told him that he should stay calm because a cool head is what works in situations such as this. But what I really thought was that my brute force has just broken a bed. It could have also been that last week I was teaching Eli to run and do flying leaps on this very bed.

Here is how the rest of the scene played out. Lily lifting up the mattress to access the damage. Eli offering to help. Lily realizing that the Ikea slats have slipped from their positions and are now lying precariously half way under the bed. Lily trying to hold the mattress with one arm while using her useless, uncoordinated left hand to untangle and replace the slats while redirecting Eli's "help". Lily giving up and shoving the mattress off the frame and going at it with both uncoordinated hands, while managing to add hundreds of slivers to her dry hands. Lily finally succeeding but needing extra deodorant from sweat that has broken out after the strenuous effort. Eli's congratulating words making his mother feel that maybe she should try to fix something else in the house.

Note: The bed in the picture below is merely a representation of the broken bed effect. If it were the real thing, Eli's room would be depressing and I would have to add that I had a large piece of concrete in the back pocket of my jeans before I sat down (which was unfortunately not the case).