My Poor Car

Today was a bad day. On my way to work this morning, some asshole ran a stop sign and f&%*ed up my Blazer pretty bad. It wasn't a busy intersection. I don't know what happened. One minute I'm thinking about the 3-6 year olds that I work with (I was only a block from school) and the next moment I see something out of the corner of my eye.

It was a Nissan Xterra, and I realized, "Oh, that's going to hit me." From that point it was like everything was in slow motion. My window shattered as her car hit my driver's side door. Then I watched in horror as the momentum of the impact sent my car over the curb and directly into the power pole. Once it all stopped, I looked around and realized that my hand was bleeding. Then I realized that my door was caved in and I couldn't get out.

The ass-hat who hit my car then appeared in my window, shrieking at me and sobbing and asking if I was okay. Get out of my FACE!!! The first thing I did was call Pete. I didn't even think about it; it was automatic. The phone was dailing before I really realized what I was doing, and for once Pete answered right away. He suggested that I use the passenger's side door for an exit. He's so smart :) When you're shaken up you don't really think of those things.

So the plot thickens...the girl who hit me didn't own the car. It was her boyfriend's. This is going to be fun from an insurance standpoint. She got out of her car (or not her car, as it were) and started sobbing and chainsmoking. While she called everyone she knew and had five people there in under 2 minutes, I called 1) the police, 2) my dad, 3) my insurance company, 4) Pete again.

The cop had a tow truck come and get my Blazer, and that was the point where I teared up. I love that car. I have had it for a little over 3 years. It has been lovingly serviced every 3 months or 4,000 miles without fail. I have washed it regularly, including every single time it snowed last winter. That car is my friend. It drove me to school in Montana ( the other UM). It drove me to my adventures in Madison, and on every trip I took to see Peter. Pete and I took it on trips. Fredo has hung out in that car for hours. In Madison, I would go grab dinner and sit with Fredo in my car and eat it pretty much at least once a week. It has ferried groceries and all my worldly possessions. I love that car, and now it's hurt because some *&^(%$ didn't stop when she was supposed to. Tomorrow I'm supposed to find out if they're going to fix it or if it's totaled.

I honestly don't know which way it's going to go. The front is mashed in pretty bad, and so is the driver's side door. I'm guessing the frame is bent.

So I went to work after I went to the doctor to get checked out and got a rental car lined up. There's nothing to put a smile on your face like 20 little kids looking at your like you're a unicorn and asking, "Are you okay, Miss Anne?" So the whole thing got turned into a learning experience about how rules exist to keep people safe and we need to follow rules.

The take home message from this whole experience is this: Well, 2 things actually:

1) Pete is the best to have helped me out so much today. There's a reason he was my first phone call, and it's not just that he lives the closest :)

2) WEAR YOUR SEATBELT. I have a cut, some scratches, and lots of soreness. If I had not been wearing my seatbelt, I could have easily gone through the windshield and I would definitely be in a lot rougher shape.