I Took A Leap on Leap Day

The Sunday before Feb. 29, 2012 I was talking to a friend who said, "Kathy, make sure you do something memorable on your extra day!"

I guess I took that a little too literally.

We have an attic where we store stuff. Laura was arriving that day and I wanted to move a small item out of the guest room and into the attic. Ok, I'll fess up....it was a Christmas decoration I had not put away yet. I walked into the attic like I have thousands of times before. Next thing I knew, my leg had broken through the attic floor and was dangling high above our cement garage! I had fallen through the attic and was only stopped from falling all the way through by my other leg which had gotten caught. I was stunned! It all happened so quickly! I was afraid to move or adjust myself for fear of falling further. I was home alone (minus the dog who was sleeping peacefully on the couch....none of that Timmy and Lassie stuff!) I did not have a cell phone on me. I was truly stuck! And I was uncomfortably in a weird position. Sort of a "trying to do the splits" position. I thought of my options while I dangled: I could just stay there all day waiting for someone to get home (what a sight that would be for Mike to open the garage door after school and see my leg hanging from the ceiling!) or I could try to free myself with the hopes of not landing on the cement below. I felt scared. I looked for something i could grab hold of. Nothing. I had to do something, so I pushed with all the strength I could muster and pulled my body out! Then I crawled out of the attic and didn't go back.

I was bruised and sore, but that didn't last long.

About 30 minutes after freeing myself, I got to giggling. I was like Chevy Chase in that Christmas movie, and Tom Hanks in that other movie. My leg really did fall through the attic! I seriously got the giggles so bad I couldn't stop laughing! I wonder if that is some sort of trauma stress relief people have?? I know it was for me. Since then, every time I tell someone, they laugh! Then they apologize for laughing. Then when they see I'm smiling, we laugh together. Why is picturing me falling through the attic so funny to everyone, including me?

I don't know if these pictures work, but her it goes.
Looking down through the hole to the garage floor below:




Looking up from the garage:




I'm sure glad to be safe, and happy to spend my extra day this year laughing and making others laugh, too! It's like Sis. Hinckley said, "You can laugh or you can cry. I prefer laughing!"