Robin Williams Stories

Yet again the A.V. Club has inspired me with their "What's your Robin Williams Story?" post. Mine is pretty funny, actually, though at the time, pretty horrifying. I was 10, and sleeping over at my friend Florence Kizza's house for a pretty innocent 6th grade version of a New Year's Eve party. Along with some other girls, we were cutting up old newspapers and magazines as confetti to throw around the room at midnight and watching Disney's Aladdin (for about the hundredth time). "Prince Ali" came on, and I immediately got up to dance, forgetting all about the clipped paper all over the floor. As I shimmied my way around, I slipped and fell face-first into the arm of couch, squishing my braces into my lip. The laughing stopped when we realized that one of the braces was stuck and needed medical attention. It's important to note that the Kizzas are from Kenya, and while they spoke conversational English, they were in no way able to convey my needs to the doctors at the hospital, nor were they legally able to do so without my parents consent. Mind you this was '92, so it wasn't as easy to get in touch with people back then, and my parents were at their own New Years Eve party, so we could not find them to give consent. Mrs. Kizza, Flo's older sister, and my friend Carrie sat at the ER for what feels like forever, all the while Carrie offering painful comic relief (every time she made me laugh it hurt). Finally, a kindly doctor took pity on our situation and agreed to dislodge the brace from my upper lip. Without Carrie stepping in as the role of comic, I might have panicked, so I forever link Aladdin, Robin Williams, New Year's Eve and Carrie in my mind. Oh, that and how having braces was truly horrifying. RIP Robin.