Yeahhhh I had an accident at work the other night. I fell from 20ft. in the air. I'm still here and I'm fine. Haven't gotten a chance to take sexy shots of the bruises yet, unfortunately. For those of you still interested, here's the Story:

So Wednesday night I was painting some Good Ol' Scenery at the Good Ol' Lesher Center for the Performing Arts in Walnut Creek. I could have been there for about four hours and have painted all that needed to be touched up, ON THE GROUND (and safely)- but the carpenters were being a bit... self-important about the rigging aspect of the huge cornice piece that was suspended above the stage, so in the end I gave in to the Technical Director's "superior wisdom" (and he is a good friend of mine whom I respect, we just don't agree sometimes and ultimately he trumps me. It's an ongoing painter vs. carpenter rivalry thing), kept my mouth shut, and waited patiently for them to get done with the Genie (for about a half hour at a time) and waited patiently for them to get done with rigging and suspending said cornice piece, and then consented when they suggested I use the Cherry Picker (Read Old Rickety Metal Thing That Should Have Been Retired At Least Five if Not Ten Years Ago) to drop two wheels down into the House, and two wheels on the stage so I could reach the ridiculously high awkward corner of a cornice piece (THAT I COULD HAVE PAINTED ON THE GROUND IN MUCH LESS TIME).

Keep in mind that all of us had already been there for about 10 hours. Everyone's tired, the carpenters are frustrated, the cherry picker has been set up hastily and the "levelling" bubble on it has probably long since been knocked out of accuracy. AND in my wannabe helpful way I've been bowing to their needs and staying out of their way all day because hell, I'm just the Painter and I'm basically doing what I'm told.

So I'm up in the Cherry Picker, which ALWAYS feels dangerously wobbly. I was trained in a Cherry Picker when I first learned how to hang and focus lighting instruments, it's always janky and makes you feel like you have to get your sea legs back before you can start feeling like you're not gonna die. So my buddy Henry, a carpenter, is footing the thing for me, and he attempts to move me over about ten inches. TEN. INCHES. It's technically illegal to move while there is someone up in the basket, but it's been done so many times and it really does save a lot of time to just hold on tight and let someone move you instead of negotiating your way out of the basket, down the ladder, only to go back up in two minutes and go dab dab dab with a paintbrush. ANYWAY.. apparently this was not my lucky night, well actually it WAS my lucky night... because Henry's trying to move me and the wheels bound up (in the dropcloth, I'm thinking, that was laid down sloppily to protect the theater's precious seats from any paint drips) and failed to move the way they were supposed to, so the top-heavy machine proceeded to tip over.

The thing about this wonderful invention is that it's already so wobbly and janky that I didn't even realize I was wobbling in a dangerous fashion until I actually started falling. It ALWAYS feels like you're gonna die while you're up there. It's not actually supposed to be that way, but so many theaters have a ladder they affectionately call "Old Rickety" or something like that, and they almost never retire equipment unless they've got OSHA breathing down their necks. So I say "Jesus Christ" a couple of times, which I would have said anyway for dramatic effect, because it was starting to feel a bit too wobbly for comfort, then I hear Henry say "uhh" and I hear Matt (who is up in a Genie onstage and can't get down in any useful amount of time) say "Woah!" and I see the red seats of the theater getting closer to me. So I turn my body and cringe and I feel the metal basket hit the seats, along with my right back and butt, and then my face and neck ricochet into another metal bar on the basket. I climbed out, in shock, feeling burning but numb, said something about how I had spilled paint on the seat and how I wanted to get up and clean them, then I sit down on the steps and try to feel my neck.

The fact that I got up and walked out of this accident, and eventually went home, just a little shaken, is a miracle. I have said it once and I'll say it again, I'm the Luckiest Motherfucker Alive. I always joke about how the universe takes really good care of me, and I think I've just proved this to myself again. I'm not religious-y faithful enough to say that it was any greater power's intervention, but I would not hesitate to say that I have a lot of truly AMAZING people in my life who all look out for me and surround me with love, and THAT, if anything aside from my attempt at "falling correctly", played a part in keeping me from losing the use of any of my body parts in this accident. My boss at Berkeley Rep, Lisa's partner, Robb fell from a ladder two years ago and damaged his spine in a devastating way. He's been recovering in leaps and bounds and it's amazing, but still and all those accidents don't usually end as happily as mine. If I had fallen in any slightly different way I could easily have broken a few bones or become paralyzed in part of my body, certainly at the very least, never to paint again.

The crappy part is that I've run up about $500 in doctor's bills, and because that theater was paying me as an Independant Contractor (which is almost always what happens because then the company can get out of giving you benefits or, generally, workman's comp and they don't have to deal with as much taxing crap when they pay you) I am not entitled to workman's comp automatically, I have to file a claim against the city and hope for a "settlement". Yay fun. I'm sure it will end well, at least I'm hoping.

The AMAZING thing is that I was able to go to the doctor at all, because my wonderful boss at Berkeley Rep, and friend Lisa, allowed me to track down the necessary information, referred me to the clinic they use for their own workman's comp claims, and then DROVE me and PICKED ME UP from the clinic. Not only that but she sat down and had a long talk with me as well as sending me to Ryan, our Assistant Technical Director who knows his stuff from past jobs, and made sure that I knew my rights as an independent contractor and what I could expect from the State of California, all the while keeping me on the clock. The doctor and the X-rays say that all I have is a little bit of muscle tension, but no chips or fractures. Whew! Of course the doctor who saw me made sure to remind me of how lucky I am.

I survived a fall from 20 feet in the air, in a metal basket on a janky piece of machinery, with little more to show for it than the equivalent of a nasty fall off of my bicycle or off of a bunk bed.

This is partially a cautionary tale to all you fellow artisans and party-planners out there, I've always been a bit of a squeaky wheel in theater for safety's sake, but then I won't blink twice before thinking about jumping in and helping with a project at NIMBY (just as an example of a place where you're not exactly working for a company and are most definitely not covered by anyone's workman's comp if you incur an injury), or I'll eventually grow weary of questioning things when something unsafe is "just the way it is done" at one particular place. Technically speaking, I was supposed to have been formally trained on that piece of equipment before using it, as was Henry before helping me with it. If I was above something like 16' I was supposed to be wearing a harness, which I don't think they even had any of for the Electricians who normally work there. Of course now they're finally throwing out the cherry picker.

Anyway, I am an incredibly lucky girl, surrounded by loving friends who are there for me even as I drop off the face of the earth regularly to pursue this crazy and sometimes dangerous profession of mine with its potentially deadly "The Show Must Go On" Mentality. I just wanted to say again, to those who have been asking about how I'm doing, those of you who are there for me whether or not we've fallen out of touch for a while, those of you who would offer to beat someone up if someone in particular were to blame for my pain and suffereing, those of you who were available to drive me to the hospital if I needed it, and those of you who are just in my life and make it that much more awesome by being around to enrich it; THANK YOU. I am surrounded and protected by your love and I feel so so so fortunate to be able to remain healthy and able-bodied so that I may continue to enjoy it :-)