I was injured in the line of duty. Friending, as it turns out, can be dangerous work.
Remember my LEADS group? The program for young Chicago Jews I signed up for? I was hesitant about it at first, worried that I might be giving a false impression of myself considering I’m not especially religious. As it turns out, it’s been a pretty positive experience. Despite concerns that my lack of Jewish knowledge would make me a laughingstock, the only time I’ve been mocked was when I parted my hair down the middle to try to represent Jesus in a game of charades. The mockery was warranted.
I’ve made some new friends through the program. In fact, last Friday Matt and I were invited to a small Chanukah dinner hosted by a potential BFF I met through this venture.
It was a pretty uneventful evening, until one of the guests asked our hostess to show off her strength. You see, she had a pull up bar hanging next to her door, and said guest wasn’t convinced she could actually execute.
Of course, the child that I am, when I heard she was doing pull ups I wanted in on the action.
“I wanna try! I wanna!” I have no idea if I could do a pull up, so naturally I’d want to give it a whirl in front of a roomful of people. My turn never came, though, because when my friend grabbed for the bar it came crashing down. On my head.
“Man, that hurt,” I said, as my hand flew to my noggin. And then. “Um, there’s blood. Everywhere.” I ran to the bathroom to check out my war wound. It was only a small cut, nowhere near as big as all the blood on my hands and face warranted. The cut was surrounded by an egg-sized goiter protruding from my forehead. There was blood on her floor, in her kitchen, basically anywhere I’d stepped foot. Awesome.
In the end, I was fine. I iced my head for three hours, forced myself to stay awake to be sure I wasn’t concussed, and came out of it with only a scratch. No stitches necessary.
And the subsequent story was worth the pain. What better way to make a memory than to have a friend clobber you on the head. I can just see us in 50 years, drinking iced teas in our old person’s home, reminiscing about the day I almost bled out in her Lakeview apartment.
These are the kind of adventures that turn someone from potential to genuine BFF.
Friending. I tell ya. It’s not for the faint of heart.
{Do you have any friending war stories? Memories of a night gone wrong that elevated a friendship from sorta to for-real? Share below!}
MWF Seeking BFF 
Rachel: Glad you are ok. Those pull-up bars can be dangerous. If your friendship endures, you certainly have a great “Remember when…” story.
My best friend / soulmate walked into the corner of a shelf in sixth grade on her second day at a new school (where I had been a student for years), gushing blood everywhere. That was fifteen years ago & we’ve been friends ever since 🙂 As a matter of fact, I think I’ll remind her today of this incident just for the laugh!
Oh no! Glad you’re okay and escaped stitch-free!
I do have a good friending war story. I had a work friend turn into an outside-of-work friend thanks to an ER visit. She and I had only known each other a few months and would eat lunch together, but we had never really hung out outside of work. She invited me to a party at a bar in Lakeview (who knew it was such a dangerous neighborhood for friending?) one Saturday night. There had been a massive snowstorm the night before. While we were leaving the bar, I hit a patch of ice, wiped out and my head hit the sidewalk hard. I had a black eye and fat lip and had to get 11 stitches! Thankfully we were right by the hospital, so my friend went with me and stayed in the ER with me until 4am, went to the bathroom with me so I wouldn’t see my face in the mirror and start crying, and escorted me home in a cab.
I had to go back to work on Monday morning, and naturally I was totally mortified about my face. My friend made jokes and did all she could to cheer me up. She went to get my coffee and lunch for me all week so I wouldn’t have to walk around and expose my face too much. I still have 2 small scars from that night, but 6 years later I still have a really good friend.
I think you may have found you BFF!…if there ever was was a sign!…glad you are ok, that must have hurt like a Dickens!
Ah yes, that would be the time I used a bottle of salad dressing I found in my friend’s fridge, and spent the rest of the afternoon in her bathroom with food poisoning. I am so glad that she is a meticulous housekeeper and had cleaned all surfaces inside and out prior to our arrival. But now I do check expiration dates more closely.
Eeek! Yeah, head wounds bleed really bad, even if they don’t look like much. I hate to admit to giggling a little at your expense, but only because I could see the same thing happening to me!
Please giggle away… That’s what I’m here for!!
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