I assure you, we’re open!

After lunch at work the other day, I escorting a a man in a wheelchair out of the building. During our trek, he was talking about the injury to his spine, but mentioned he could still walk “because I was an athlete and a Marine.” Since then, I’ve been marveling at how remarkable the human body is and especially what exercise does for someone.

Which makes me think of my hip. After the accident, my pelvis was shattered and reconstructed in a feat of orthopedic-magic. Seriously.  Today, my ex-rays bring a crowd of nurses and doctors, because they can’t believe the work they did inside me.  It’s like a museum in my pelvis.

When the first let me out of the hospital, the doctor told me, “Your leg is gonna ache and get painful, and you’ll need to get in replaced in about 10 years.” That was in ’97, and I’m still walking on the hardware of the first iteration. But the pain they promised has begun, lucky me. If you even touch my hip, I come out of my skin.  I’m starting to have trouble putting socks on.

I fear the day that I need to replace it approaches, and I don’t like the daily reminder that my body is breaking down.

I’m writing about this because it’s been on my mind and I recently read a blog post about aging and being older. Which I am. Then, the other night my fiancé and I watched Clerks II.

Okay. I remember seeing the first Clerks when it was just an underground cult flick. Friends would pile into each other’s cars to drive to the home of the of whoever had the bootleg VHS. Quoting one of the lines, like “Bunch a savages” or “I’m not even supposed to be here today!” or “Snoochie boochie!” was like a a secret password to others “in the know.” And if you were in the know, you were a little bit cooler in someone’s estimation. This was always such an icon, so checking in with them again is bittersweet. Especially at the end, and they’re like “You’re my best friend and I just wanna go back and reopen the shop!”

Then the song played at the end is Alanis Morrisette “Everything.” Wring my heart a little more, why doncha?

Now I’m going to go do yoga. Try to keep this hip in action and slow time a bit.