People are…

Assholes.

One of the other reasons why I have been spending so much time at home is that I hurt myself. I have a penchant for incurring injury from the knees down. That may not seem like much possible injury but it can be heavily crippling. I severely sprained my ankle just over 3 weeks ago. Which means that I twisted it so badly that I chipped my ankle bone. And this is on the same ankle that I twisted last year and the knee above it playing softball. Yay me!

For the first 2 weeks I had to wear an air cast aka the boot. It allowed me to walk around but slowly and uncomfortably. This just happened to occur on the day Toronto went into a deep freeze that was followed by a lot of snow. I was already unimpressed by my predicament and the weather just had to make it worse. I had to accept my current state and be happy I was able to function, just with a lot of extra effort.

No those aren't my sexy sexy legs.

With the boot on I couldn’t wear a shoe. It worked out surprisingly fine as with all the padding my toes did not get cold. But unfortunately there were many times were snow wasn’t cleared from pathways which led to snow getting to my little piggies and they were soaked for much of the day. Again I accepted that.

At work I was teased. It was in a nice way at least. The first day was a lot of, “Oh my gawd……..What happened?!” I explained I was saving kids from a burning bus before it fell off a bridge as they were on their way to church and were part of an exchange program from Africa and the nuns they were were too old to help and as they continued to thank me I turned to wave goodbye to them and didn’t see a hole which I stepped in twisting my ankle. Then I explained that the last part was the only part that was true. As I slowly made my way around the office I was called things like hobble-foot in pure jest as people gave up seats and patiently waited for me to catch up. Co-workers got me lunch, regularly visited me at my desk and even brought me treats. I totally accepted that.

I still had to take transit to get to and from work and you would think that other patrons of the TTC or even their employees would be slightly sympathetic or in the least have some sort of understanding of my situation. But I was wrong. I was pushed out of the way so people could get on/off a bus before me; people wouldn’t give up their seat even though I was clearly unstable while standing (in 2 weeks only 1 person gave up their seat and it was an old man and I felt really bad about it but he insisted that I take it); I almost fell down a flight of stairs after being pushed on the way to the subway; buses did not wait as I hobbled towards them. I wasn’t impressed by any of this. The problem is at that time I was too tired and in pain to complain about it. I just wanted the experience to be over. This I cannot accept and am disgusted by it.

I knew that people aren’t always the best but despite my high level of cynicism I, deep down, believe that people can be nice. I give up my seat when needed; I would say I am patient in most situations; I try my best to be polite; and if I can do those things I don’t see why other people can’t. Man was I wrong. It seems that most people are just complete assholes. I know I am “young” but if I am clearly having an issue walking, I have an unmistakable boot on my leg, don’t treat me like I am purposefully trying to ruin your day.

I am not really asking for help. Just don’t push, don’t grumble just loud enough so I can hear how slow I am being, and if it looks like I am going to fall offer up a seat. That’s it. Just don’t be an asshole.

Sadly that is too much to ask.

Tra