On Easter Sunday I was minding my own business when suddenly I stepped off a curb wrong and completely screwed up my ankle. No bones were broken, so the ER staff diagnosed me with a sprain, put me in an air cast, gave me crutches, and sent me on my way.

The trouble with having a sprained ankle is that people think it’s synonymous with a twisted ankle. It’s not. By medical definition I have “just” a bad sprain, but in my case that means I have multiple tears in multiple ligaments and tendons. Two doctors, four braces, and nearly three months later and I’m still limping along, now (finally) awaiting surgery to fix the tear in the tendon.

But I’m not posting to whine. (Well, not just to whine, anyway.)

I’m posting to share some of the awesome that has been bestowed upon me during my recovery. First, my sister made me a present: a grumpasaurus to cheer me up. I love him, and he currently disapproves from atop my bookshelf. Perhaps unsurprisingly, my husband quickly snapped him up and put him in a comic:

by theshaggyfreak on deviantART

From the start I’ve been a touch embarrassed at injuring myself so grievously doing something so mundane. It also gets a little old answering “what happened?” over and over (and over!) again. At some point I decided to start lying, and even better, tell each person something different. My friend Yibble was particularly intrigued by my story about being pushed out of a plane by a Nazi while alligator wrestling and ended up drawing a rather amusing cartoon of the event:

by Illishar on deviantART

A note on the costume: Yibble texted me to ask what I was wearing while skydiving and alligator wrestling. I told her 18th century garb, naturally. I mean, what else does one wear for such occasions?