Ow! That was unexpected

My apartment, being quite tiny, came equipped with a very sturdy loft, upon which I have been sleeping since I moved in more than a year ago. The loft is supported by 4x4 uprights near the outer edge of it, and the apartment came with a huge free-standing, very solidly built, wardrobe/cupboard thing. When I moved in the wardrobe/cupboard thing was up against the wall and the couch was under the loft. This made no sense to me, so I rotated the wardrobe/cupboard thing up against the uprights for the loft, creating a large walk-in closet under the loft, and put the couch against the wall where the wardrobe/cupboard thing had been, which made for a very nice, if small, living room, and a very usable closet area (once I'd added shelves to the back of the wardrobe/cupboard thing and attached some closet poles to the underside of the loft).

The wardrobe/cupboard thing is longer than the loft (which is as long as a standard mattress) by a couple of hand-widths. Therefore I was able to create a set of stairs for loft-access by setting the larger of my large wooden boxes for SCA camping events in the corner where the wardrobe/cupboard thing and the 4x4 loft upright intersect, and then put the smaller wooden box atop that. I then put the small, low, chest of drawers that matches the wardrobe/cupboard thing (and is just as solidly built against the end of the wardrobe/cupboard thing, next to the wooden box. Atop that I added the third wooden box for SCA camping events, which supported the toaster-oven my boss let me use for the duration of my time here.

Climbing into bed was a simple matter of stepping onto the portion of box #1 which wasn't occupied by box #2, then stepping onto box #2. Once standing atop box #2 it was a simple matter to grasp the very solid angle bracket with which I'd attached a head board to the loft (to keep my pillow from falling off) with my left hand, putting my right hand atop the outer corner of the loft, and picking up my right leg to step onto the outer corner of the wardrobe/cupboard thing (which is about waist-height in that position. From there I'd just use the strength in my leg/arms to lift myself easily into bed.

Getting back out of bed involved sitting on the edge of the mattress, legs over the edge, right hand grasping the very solid angle bracket attached to the headboard, left hand down on the edge of the wardrobe cupboard thing, and ease my weight forward till my toes just touched the top of wooden box #2 (by which time my bottom had slid completely off the edge of the mattress, and only the strength of my arms was supporting my weight. Being used to this I'd often slide over that edge fairly quickly, and actually do the several cm drop from the full extension of my legs while seated to the point where my feet make contact with box #2 with the help of gravity--the hands more for balance than for lowering myself slowly.

However, as of last night the arrangement has changed. We loaded my boxes into the van, ready for clovis_t and our friend who did the road trip with him to take them back to Scotland. Therefore in order to get into bed I set my little folding stool atop that sturdily built chest of drawers (which hasn't moved) and stood upon it to lever myself up into bed. Worked just fine, getting in. Alas, something woke me at 01:30 (I'd gone to sleep early, for a change, being tired from packing & loading), and decided that I may as well do a middle of the night run to the toilet. Did I remember that the apartment has largely been emptied, and the wooden boxes were not there? No. No I did not!

I sat on the edge of the bed, as I normally do, and only sort of grabbed the support points, and commenced my normal quick slide out of bed. However, instead of dropping a couple of cm, I dropped the full meter from where I expected the boxes to be to the floor, and landed on my hands and knees rather harder than I would have liked to have done. No idea how I managed to get my hands in front of me that quickly, but I must have done so given they way the heels of my hands stung from the impact. I must also have hit my left elbow against something on the way down, but it was too fast to say if it was the edge of the loft, or that solidly built chest of drawers next to which I landed. Ow! Other than bruising I don't appear to be really hurt, but the experience woke me up more than I would have liked. I did crawl back up into bed (after accomplishing the mission for which I'd gotten up in the first place), but then couldn't fall straight back to sleep, so I got up and started working on organizing the stuff in my suitcase (project stuff and SCA costumes so far) in preparation for deciding which of the modern clothes I haven't used for packing material will be coming with me to Sweden.

Then I remembered the nice leather satchel I inherited from my step-dad, and wondered if it was large enough to hold my new computer, because if it were it would make a lovely computer carrying bag. Therefore I stopped organizing that stuff to bring it across the street to check. Alas, it is not large enough, so I'll have to use something else (this notebook is huge!). It is now 03:30 and I've printed maps to my friend's house in Geneva and updated my logs. Now I need to type up the rest of the box inventory and print it so that if they ask clovis_t at the border what is in the van he can answer them. Then perhaps I'll nap before finishing up the packing (mostly just the clothes I won't be taking with me to Sweden at this point) and going to the train station to buy tickets to Geneva tomorrow, or perhaps I'll stay up till after they depart with the van (planed for around 10:00) and then sleep.