elbows, mountains, marriage

So, I broke my elbow last Saturday. Went flying over handlebars and then crashed. Got up, waved away concerned woman and got back on the bike. Went another 4 miles and had a meeting with lovely teacher from New Trier whose class I'm taking over when she goes to have her baby. I got a bag of ice and we discussed "A Tale of Two Cities" while I began to recognize something was definitely wrong. I had two thoughts-How badly hurt is my bike? Do I have to tell Timo? I called him, it was x-rayed by this skinny, blond teenager who nearly killed me and the elbow was broken. I was given a narcotic and sent home. No one wanted to be with stoned Molly but the crazy cats.

First I decided Colorado was definitely off but then my Mom called and suggested she pay to put me up in a local Chicago hotel so I could "write". " I agreed and immediately started to pack my bags for the Rockies. Years ago when I was teaching at Rutgers we had a final reading scheduled for my Creative Writing class at a local bar. My now ex-husband, then fiancee called and told me a hurricane was supposed to hit New Jersey and suggested I cancel and have dinner with him instead. "Okay," I said and then I got on a train and went to New Brunswick. I managed to board a train back to Manhattan as they were closing all the freeways. At some point I'd called my fiancee and he'd said, "Where are you?" when I told him there was a baffled silence. Maybe we both should have known we didn't have the temperments to survive a marriage. Still, it was a glorious event.

I picked up the car in Denver and started driving to Silverthorne where my friend's house is located. Despite the cast it was pretty simple to drive but it started snowing and the roads were amazingly steep and one part of me questioned my decision while the other one pointed out that despite assurances from my husband and son, they always needed a fair amount of caretaking. If I was going to rewrite this novel, I had to spend at least a week without an excuse for a lack of focus.

Timo didn't try to persuade me not to go which resulted in my feeling slightly put out. Like what kind of crazy man would let his wife go alone to Colorado with a broken elbow? a healthy one who knows said wife would bolt anyway. The place was gorgeous and I have 50 pages done.