Here’s what I know: some people are just klutzy. They trip over lines in the linoleum, run into walls that have existed, unmoving, for the entirety of their lives in that house. They hit their heads getting into, and sometimes out of, the same car they’ve driven for years. They drop things for no reason, get paper cuts more often than the average person, and for the love of all that is Holy, don’t ask them to walk, chew gum and do anything else at the same time.

Peggy and Her Running Mate
Confession time: I’m some people. I’m klutzy. There, I said it. Owned it. I’ve been living this dream for a long time now, so I thought I’d have a little fun with it.
My children (who happen to be sixteen and nineteen) laugh at me and my unfortunate antics, all the time. If I had a dollar for every time my husband watched me bump into something, then shook his head, well let’s just say I’d have a whole lot of dollars.
As a kid I stubbed my toe…a lot. As I grown up I seem to have a penchant for falling off my own feet. I like to blame it on the little cracks and uneven bits of sidewalk, but if that were the truth then all of you would be on the ground with me. And you’re not. Two years ago I tripped while I was out for a run with my dog. After the incident that resulted in me tearing open my elbow and requiring a total of 12 stitches (both inside and outside) I returned to the scene of my fall expecting to see the sidewalk torn open and ragged as if an earthquake had shifted the tectonic plates far below the surface. But no, there was a little raised edge of sidewalk, that sat up about an inch and a half higher than its partner piece of sidewalk. An inch and a half and I turned it into an emergency room visit, complete with x-ray, stitches, time off work and the inability to bend my elbow for days. Klutzy.

Peggy’s Running Mate, Klaus
Y’know that concept that when you think something you put that energy out into the world? Well that energy hit me full in the face. Before I could utter a sound, the phone flew out of my hand, in a graceful arc up and over the water. The headphones cord pulled itself out with a little pop, and with a plunk, my phone fell into the water and came to rest on the bottom of the canal. A million things went through my head, including me wondering how I was to stay in contact with my staff and continue running a jewelry store with my business partner, when all of my contacts were at the bottom of the canal. All of this happened in the space of a millisecond.
I had to retrieve my phone. I had no choice. I was going in.
I loosened the tension on the leash and jumped into the water. It wasn’t graceful, it wasn’t careful, my arms were flailing as my feet, then legs plunged into the very cold water. On a side note, any swelling in my knee was soothed by that chilly water. I reached down to the bottom and felt around for my phone. Although the water was only two feet deep, I succeeded in drenching myself up to the waist, completely. I came up empty handed on my first try. I let the swift moving water clear away the debris that I’d stirred up, I visually located my phone and I reached back in, this time, slowly so as not to disturb the sediment on the bottom. My fingers closed around the precious device and I pulled it up and into the air, holding it aloft as if it were a hard won trophy. I looked to the side to see that my trusty dog was perched on the edge of the canal and was slowly moving toward me. The look in his eyes and the set of his head and ears seemed to ask, “Are we both going in? If so, I’m on my way!”. I told him to stay, meanwhile thinking back to my last big running fall, the one that resulted in the stitches, when I looked up from the ground and saw him standing in the middle of Auburn Folsom Rd, with traffic stopped around him. Poor dog, I’m sure he was questioning if being my running partner was really worth all this.
Back to the canal. As I stood in the swiftly moving, and almost icy water, I realized that I couldn’t climb out where I had just jumped in. I moved a few feet down, where the side wasn’t as steep, found purchase, and climbed my way out. Right at the moment all of this happened I received a text from a friend/client saying that he had received a ring I’d shipped to him and that his wife loved it! I’ll take the win.

Peggy and Her Running Mate
What did we learn from all of this? Klutzy is as klutzy does, and maybe next time I drop my phone in the water, because we all know it’s not a matter of “if” it’s a matter of “when”…I’ll go with the slow, graceful approach to retrieving it.
Nah. Who am I kidding? I’ll go in, headfirst, arms flailing, disrupting everything around me, as klutzy as ever. It’s all just part of my charm.
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