Football Night in Atlanta November 5th 2011.

I just wish I could say it wasn't true.  I wish that we had lost to Petrino the NSFW.  But it happened.  And oddly, that was not the worst part of the weekend for me.  No, my weekend was far more interesting than it needed to be.  And it wasn't because of over zealous UGA fans celebrating our loss and their assumption of the SEC East driver's seat.  It was a head injury.

I started my day by playing rugby.  Went a lot like the Carolina game actually.  Promising start and then mental mistakes and poor execution let the flood gates open.  Then tragedy (Connor Shaw concussion), well in my case I broken a bone in my head.  After a head-on collision with an opponent I fractured the bone just above my eyeball on the frontal bone. 

When it happened, I reached up with my hand to survey the damage by touch.  Pulled my hand away and saw a little bit of blood, but something felt funny.  So I reached up again and ran my finger along the bone, and felt a small dimple, then I checked against my other eye.... no dimple.  Something is definitely wrong.  While play was still going on, I walked calmly and directly to the sideline and off of the field.  Some of my teammates told me that the cut "isn't that bad" and to "just put a band-aid on it, you'll be alright".  My girlfriend comes running over, hysterical, naturally, and asks me what happened and is everything ok.  I said to her, "we need to get to the hospital".

That was enough for her. She runs to get my bag and we start heading off to the hospital.  The next 2 hours were a lot of worrying and boredom.  Couldn't find the remote for the tv in the hospital room, my eye was swelling shut and they were saying something about needing a plastic surgeon to repair my orbital(thankfully this turned out to be incorrect). 

Finally we leave, and remember that this is on a Saturday, and we have to pay a parking attendant to leave and don't have any cash and they don't accept credit cards.  On a Saturday, really?  My girlfriend is trying to scratch up as much loose change as possible to cover the debt, meanwhile I'm trying to haggle with the guy.  The conversation goes like this:

Attendant: "That'll be $4.00"

Me:  "what? But it's Saturday..."

Attendant:  (blank stare, unphased) "$4.00"

me:  "credit card ok?"

Attendant: "no, cash only"

Me:  "oh come on, I just broke my face, I've been in there for 2 hours, my eye is swelling shut and i can barely see"

Attendant:  (looks annoyed, raises gate and points to drive through)

And then I got to go home and watch Carolina lose.  I am apparently too dumb to know my limits, because I still want to play rugby, but my girlfriend and my parents(I'm 28 years old people) are strongly opposed.  Maybe that's why I'm a Carolina fan.  Bad things happen, my favorite team hurts me and I just keep coming back for more.  I'll be on my way to Columbia tomorrow with quite a hefty black eye.  I just want us to beat Florida.  Don't hurt me, Carolina., please, don't hurt me.