@stash: I just realized: even through my adult life I was injuring myself one way or the other too. And it seemed always to be stupid stuff: falling down a short flight of stairs that didn’t pose a problem for anyone else; I even broke my leg getting *onto* a bus if you can believe that. Like you said: “clumsy incidents”. Never put two and two together before your last post here, but it makes sense. Every time something happened, I *know* my mind was far off somewhere else instead of concentrating on what I was doing.
Most embarrassing adult incident: it was a sunny day and I was out for a walk at noon hour. I was wearing a long coat, and my hands were thrust deep into both pockets. Once again – my mind was busy playing games with itself, and having a lot of fun. My foot caught something on the sidewalk, and down I went. Only, because my hands were so deep into my pockets, I couldn’t get them out in time.
A car stopped and someone asked if I was OK. I told them I was, but I really wasn’t: the entire right side of my face was scraped raw and bleeding, and I think I got a black eye out of the deal too. My boss was horrified when I got back, and she asked me if I had been in a fight. When I told her what happened, she didn’t believe me. I know this because she said “it’s OK. You can tell me. You were in a fight weren’t you?”
I can laugh about it now. But back then – not so much.