I never claimed that walking was my forte…

El Paso is beautiful. But you know what isn't? A bloody toe.




That's right. Ew.

I did this walking to the morning session. I've been taking the stairs between floors, since the elevators...well, suck. Anyway, I somehow I managed to open the stairwell door ON my poor toe (because I am talented that way), and take a hunk of flesh out in the process.

Then, the blood started to gush, because that is what happens when your skin springs a leak. And, of course, there wasn't a band aid in sight. But since I was walking around looking for one, I managed to leave a trail of blood in my wake (something I didn't realize I was doing until a young, male conference goer pointed it out in the stairwell).

The conference people didn't have a first aid kit, and the only thing the front desk could offer me was an alcohol swab and a band aid the size of a freckle. They did, however, offer me some Kleenex so I would stop bleeding on their carpet.

Finally, I found a case of eight band aids and a small tube of Neosporin in the hotel gift store for the bargain (!) price of $13.50. But it was either buy the expensive stuff or risk needing an emergency transfusion in the lobby.

Needless to say, I missed the first conference session this morning. It took forty five minutes and five band aids to finally control the bleeding. But the free time did give me a chance to return my boss’ early morning phone call. The conversation went something like this:

Me: “Hi. It is [Deals].”

My Boss: “Oh, hi. Why aren’t you in a session?”

Me: “Yeah, about that…I hurt my toe on the way to the session this morning, and it took awhile to find a band aid.”

My Boss: “You what?”

Me: “Hurt my toe. To be fair, it was bleeding a lot.”

My Boss: “Oh. Bad enough to skip the session?”

Me: “Well, I thought so. And I dripped blood on the hotel carpet, so I’m assuming the hotel appreciated my immediate attention to the problem as well. I’m all set to go to the next session, though. And this break gives me a chance to call you back and catch up on my work emails and telephone calls.”

My Boss: “Oh, okay. That’s fine. You are alright, though, yes?”

Me: “Yep. Bleeding is under control right now. Just a small gash, but it bled a lot. I’m blaming the fact that I chose to wear a skirt today. It threw off my walking game.”

Maybe if the skirt I was wearing looked more like this:




My toe wouldn’t have ended up looking like this:

Note: These two pictures were taken about 5 seconds apart to give you a better idea of how badly the little sucker was bleeding.

Sigh. Poor toe.

If only the conference included sessions on how best to open stairwell doors without injury, I’d be all set.