Well, I'm ok, but the answer is my right eye and cheek. I have a lot of padding on when I rollerblade, but fortunately today when I fell I managed to avoid damaging any of it. I landed on my right cheek and right ribs. Nothing broken, just scraped and sore. My right eye is black and blue and swollen so I can barely keep it open, and my cheek is red and scratched. I'll end up with a slight scar under my eye. My ribs are slightly bruised too. They did x-rays and I managed not to break anything.

One thing that is sort of neat is that when the eye suffers a trauma like that it fills up with fluid, sort of as a shock absorber. Then within a few hours the fluid drains back out.

I've been in a number of accidents over the years, and there is always that moment when you know things aren't going right- things sort of slow down, and you don't have time to really feel anything, you just know it is going to happen, and you see the impact coming. Then it hits so quick that you really can't say what happened, and you are bruised or cut or have a twisted neck or something, but you don't really feel anything. You just stop and say "Ok. I'm not dead. Guess I had better get up and do something."

In this case, I can remember going down a slightly too steep incline and realizing that I was going to crash. I tried to get off the side of the path so I didn't end moving any faster than I already was. Then there was this quick bounce, and I realized I had hit my cheek. I thought, "Well, at least it doesn't hurt and nothing seems to be moving in a way it shouldn't." So I sat up for a second, then lay on my back, and stared at the sky for a few minutes. Somebody came by and asked if I need any help. I said "Why does it look bad?" They said "Well, you are bleeding a lot, and your face looks pretty scrapped." I said, "I think I'm okay. Just a little dazed." After a few minutes I took of my skates, got up and went to the bathroom to wash my cuts. I had come about 2 miles, and I started walking down the path back to my car until a police officer ran up to me. The police officers called an ambulance, but we decided I could make it on my own. The ambulance guys suggested I get x-rays to make sure I hadn't fractured the orbital bone around my eye or the my cheek.