Happy Advent

Wanna hear something hilarious?

I mean hil-ar-i-ous.

I might have broken a toe yesterday.

On my one good(ish) limb.

Least bad.

Yep. I violated my doctor’s order not to get injured.

Because that’s how much of an overachiever and a rule breaker I am.

Sigh.

And the story is not spectacular. I was walking. In the house. In stocking feet. So I didn’t realize just how colorful my toe had become until I returned home hours later … after standing up and giving a twenty minute presentation … and sitting in on several more.

This would be a great time to sit down with my foot elevated and get some writing done. And no, I am not posting pics on the social media. All y’all who think sharing gruesome injury photos is acceptable … you are wrong. Same goes for abused animal / children pics.

My week started with a call Sunday morning letting me know a friend’s mom had passed. It was not particularly expected.

Already in a bit of a somber mood, Monday morning brought the terrorist attack at Ohio State. I was first made aware of the incident by a Facebook post from a friend sheltered in place at her workplace nearby. Everyone gets their news from Facebook, right?

Yikes.

People marked themselves safe on the friendbook. Someone questioned why people miles away bothered to mark themselves safe. Duh. Their Great Aunt Freida in Timbuktu knows they live in Columbus but knows nothing of the layout of the city.

Here’s the thing.

It’s been many years, but once upon a time I frequented that neighborhood daily. My first two years of college were spent living in one of the dorms at Lane and High, about a block from the now infamous Watts Hall.

I’ve been trying to get a feel all week for exactly where the car crash and the shooting took place. I was right there virtually every day for six years. News outlets understandably report just that it was Ohio State, that it was Watts Hall, that it was 19th and College. But there was mention of the chemical engineering building, too. Was it just the confused reporting in the immediate aftermath?

Today I found this graphic from the Dispatch. Ahem. Go ahead and click that open. The source of what became known as The Breakfast of Champions … a bag of M&Ms and a Diet Coke on the way into an 8am class … was a vending machine just off the loading dock on the southwest corner of the old Koffolt Lab. (There’s a new chemical engineering building just west of what this map shows.)

Also on the southwest corner of Koffolt … third floor … was the office I occupied for two years. I was responsible for about two hundred students and met one-on-one with each of them at least once a quarter.

Eventually I had a second super double top secret office in our research group’s lab in the basement … you know, to get actual research done … also in the southwest corner of Koffolt.

Yep. Right there where the Ohio State police officer took down the attacker.

So hey.

It’s been an interesting start to Advent this year.

I should probably go bake some cookies or something. Sitting down with my foot elevated, of course.

Keep looking up.