For some reason I have often gotten in trouble with my feet. When I was a little kid I was always getting slivers from running around barefoot or stepping on earrings and other sharp objects. One time in high school I saw a big pile of snow stacked up in a parking lot and got the sudden urge to go kick the top off of it. So I did, of course (not a wise decision to follow your impulses). It turned out to be a big block of ice covered with a thin layer of snow. Needless to say I sprained my big toe and couldn’t play in our basketball games for a while!
Just a few months ago I was headed to work on a rainy day when I got in my car and realized I had forgetten my keys in my room. I quickly ran back inside and to be wise I took off my sandals so I wouldn’t track any water on the floor. As I ran up to my room to retrieve my keys I stepped on a toothpick which sunk firmly into the sole of my foot (An area which my doctor would later tell me is the most sensitive parts of the body) Well, she didn’t really need to tell me... I had figured it out all by myself. Let me just say this was not your normal run-of-the-mill everyday toothpick. This was more like a small javelin. Somehow it was sticking up from the rug at the perfect angle for me to step on. It actually wasn’t that painful going in, it happened so fast. But when I tried to pull it out I almost passed out from the pain. My roommate was there and she pulled as hard as she could, and then I pulled as hard as I could again. It wouldn’t budge; it was a few inches into the muscle and tendons. (Do you want to throw up yet?) Later that day when the doctor finally got it out of my foot, she proudly walked around the office showing it to her associates saying, “Look at the extraction I just made!” I’m glad she got some joy out of it.

So much for keeping my foot from evil...