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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

An Accidental Birthday Carol

I'm writing so that not only can I tell you about the play I went to and the events of my night, but also so that I can stop telling the story of what happened last night.  Forgive the lame attempt at a diagram you will soon see.

First, I leave work in the car pool and get back to my car.  I wanted to go home and change, do a few things, grab a bite, etc. before having to meet with my dad to go to see A Christmas Carol.  I finally leave my house at about 5:40 or so, head North on Crosstown, let me present the diagram at this point:

(click to enlarge)
(diagram is not to scale and just something i drew up real quick, so it's pretty lame.  the filled in boxes are not concrete medians, but lines painted on the road to indicate there are no lanes there, just space)

Ok, so.. my car is car A, his car is car B.  He had a stop sign attempting to make a left hand turn, I had no stop sign and was driving straight.  He decides that it's all clear, for whatever reason, to make his left hand turn... had I not been paying attention, I would have hit him because he pulled out in front of me.  I noticed he was going, in a last minute attempt to avoid the collision I slightly swerve into the yellow painted lines (there was a car entering the right turn lane) hoping he would see me and make the attempt to stop and avoid it altogether.  Because the roads last night in Minnesota were some of the worst we've seen in a long time, upon hitting my brakes I start to slide... and slide.  So I swerve to avoid and slide in the process... way far to the left before he actually sees me, he ends up hitting the back of my passenger back door/tire area.  I spin a full 180° and end up facing south, we both pull off to the side of the road.

We get out, ask if we are okay, blah blah.  I go to look at the damage, see that my back door is pretty beat up and try to open it; it doesn't open.  I think to myself maybe it's locked, so I open the front passenger door hit the unlock button, close the door and try again; nothing.  So then I figure I better get my insurance crap out and whatever else.  Turns out when I was trying to unlock the doors I hit the button the wrong way and locked all of them... with my car running, purse, phone, and my entire life locked inside.  It's cold outside, I had just washed my hair, so it's soaking wet, my hat is locked in the car... I am trying to zip my jacket and the zipper gets stuck not even half way up.  I fumble to grab my mittens out of my pockets because my fingers are fucking pure ice.... I ask the guy who hit me if I can use his phone, because I just locked mine in my car... I first called my dad because he was on his way down to meet me for the play.  As soon as he picks up I bust into tears and tell him what is going on - I also tell him that my keys are locked in the car and my mom had just left the house to go to Best Buy.  He said he would call Best Buy and have her paged, tell her to go home, etc.  We then call the police to have them come file a report.  I'm freezing.  The police finally arrive we tell them the story, they take all the information I can give without having my purse accessible.  They call another squad car to try and break into my car and let they let me sit in the back of their car to warm up (first time ever in a squad on my 27th birthday... imagine)... turns out Toyota's are virtually impossible to break into (good or bad at this moment?) - she tries and cannot get it.  I tell the dude who hit me to just leave, there is no point in him sticking around, I have his cell number and he has mine...  I would call him with my policy number (it was the only thing I didn't have access to).  I still cannot get a hold of my mom and my house is just blocks away, so I said I would just walk down and grab the spare, they said someone can take me.  The first squad sits there with my car while the woman who tried to break into it takes me the few blocks to my house so I can use the garage code to get in and get my spare key (this was the 2nd squad car back seat I had been in... again on my 27th birthday).  I get the key, she takes me back and I open the car get the insurance info to the 1st squad officers.
We all leave.

I call my dad because, by this time, it's 6:30 and I'm suppose to be meeting him at 6:30... he said they were coming to the house to get me, so I head there.  I walk in my house, in full tears, run up to my mom and say "I'm okay"... and she says "Accident?" I then proceed to tell her the story.  We go look at my car, my dad and his wife pull up ... awkwardness all around.  I go in to pee, get in with my dad and we leave to downtown.

Ugh... this is getting long.  Sorry.

Finally get to The Guthrie, find our seats and sit.  I'm exhausted.  The play starts and I find myself struggling to pay attention... not only because I had just been in an accident but because we were sitting in front of the Sign Language people and I found it interesting watching the play through them.  Once I finally get over watching them and start to watch the actors I find my mind drifting off to the accident and what happened, how it could have been avoided, and if Karma was biting me in the ass (more on that shortly).  I am able to stop thinking off and on and pay attention to the play and it was wonderful!  I had never seen any of the movies or anything having to do with A Christmas Carol, so the story was completely new to me... and I loved it.
All things considered, take that one bad hour out of my day, I had a great birthday.

Here is the karma thing... as mentioned above, my dads wife came with, fine.  On the way home from work with Jayne we were talking about it and how it was such BS that I had to leave my house to go meet my dad and that he couldn't just come to pick me up... on my birthday of all day.  If people are really okay with the issue, which they claim to be, then it shouldn't be a big deal - well it obviously was.  So I kept saying to Jayne... maybe I should call him and tell him the garage door is frozen shut and he needs to come get me or what if I tell him I'm running late and it would be helpful if he could come to me... this that and the other thing... all trying to come up with anything to make it so he has to come get me.
Well, if you read closely above you know he came to pick me up... at what cost?  Oh, just a huge dent in the side of my car, no big deal, right?  So I ask, Karma?

Everything aside, I am okay and that is all that matters (or at least people keep telling me that).  My car needs plastic surgery... but I am okay.
I've talked to my insurance and they said it sounds like it was 100% his fault, so I should call his insurance company and file a claim through them.  I have a voice mail into them and I am waiting for a call back.

Last... I'm very sorry about the ramblings you've just read.  Things are still coming back to me slowly and I just wanted to get it all out... I hope it makes sense to you, the reader.
Also, I will post a picture here of the damage to my car eventually... probably not until next week though.  I'll let you know when it's up.

6 comments:

Lovi said...

OMG! I'm glad you're okay, but man that sounds like a rough night. I totally believe in karma, but I have to say, I think the crappy weather last night probably played a pretty big part in all this (not that I'm any kind of karma expert or anything). Also glad to hear the guy acknowledge it was his fault -- it sucks when people don't take responsibility for an accident. Again, glad you're okay!!

Dawn said...

Glad you're ok, sorry it had to happen on your birthday. That said....ever hear the old saying "Be careful what you wish for"? :-)

Kristi @ Mi Vida Ocupada said...

That stinks, especially on your bday!!!! I would've wanted to just go straight home and feel sorry for myself after all that. So glad you are okay

Dana said...

Wow! Glad you are not hurt and you state that even though you had the accident, it was still a great birthday. That's pretty good! I dig your diagram. :)

Loopy said...

What a terrible thing to happen on your birthday. This guy making the left turn should have realized the bad driving conditions and taken more caution. You mentioned in a prior blog how you hate left turns and now you have another reason. I'm glad you are okay and I hope you don't have any trouble getting your car fixed.

BB Live Updates said...

Eek!!!! So sorry you had this experience, but SO glad you are okay!!!!

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