ouch

This has been a bit of a crazy weekend.
To start with, I gave a ride to a rather crazy woman whom I thought was friends with my mother-in-law. The flagged us down as I drove Mama home, and they knew each other from riding the bus. The lady said she needed to get to Jack London Square and her father just called to say he was visiting her. As we were driving, it became apparent that the father was flying in at midnight (and I didn't get to make the connection between that and her need to go to Jack London Square before she got out to, apparently, try to find a friend while I waited--and then disappeared. I don't know what I almost got messed up in, but it was strange.
Then yesterday morning I was biking with a group of friends, trying out a friend's road bike. I was approaching an uphill and having trouble shifting the gears when I hit some sandy gravel, panic-braked, and tossed myself over the handlebars. I landed on my face. Fortunately I was wearing a helmet and I landed in the gravel and not on the pavement or the very nearby curb. Luckily a police officer was driving by just afterward, and there were other friends around to help. My partner was able to ride in the ambulance and be with me for the grueling 5-hour ER procedures that involved lots of local anesthetic shots on my face, lengthy rinsing of the sand & gravel out of my mouth and wounds, and the 4 sets of stitches in and around my mouth. The doctors and nurses were very friendly, and I was grateful that he was rightfully included as my partner. I am so lucky to have my fiance around, to take care of me, rub my feet, make smoothies and soup and fetch me water. I'm not able to talk well yet, and I'm quite swollen and crusty. It remains to be seen if my nose is fractured, and my jaw seems a little lopsided. We'll see.
If you want to see a photo of us after the ER, let me know.
I also want to thank our friends Matt & Claire, who went out of their way to make sure the bikes and cars got sorted out, and who made a special grocery run for smoothies and foods to keep my strength and healing. Send some special energy to Matt, also, who probably saw the whole thing go down--and I know it wasn't pretty.

So that's the update.
My partner was so brave, sitting with me as I bled out of my mouth, watching the cleaning and stitching (it wasn't pretty, I'm sure), and holding my hand and rubbing my feet while I dealt with the pain.
And even with my ugly, scraped up, oozing face, he still looks at me with love...it's beautiful.