whip it good!

it's been a most interesting week. on wednesday, i was driving to the college, and i was behind a little blue ford escort going eastbound. we both had to turn right onto a major road and the light was red, so the blue car waited until a break in the traffic and then turned. i did the same - i waited a few seconds until i could squeeze in and then i turned. usually when one makes a turn like this, one accelerates to make sure that one doesn't slow up the traffic behind them. apparently, the driver of the blue car missed that part of driver's ed (or common sense). but i didn't! nope, not me! and i must have been in a different universe or something in my mind because during my habitual acceleration, i slammed into the rear of the little blue car. my murano's front bumper and hood were crunched, and the radiator was leaking its green fluid of life onto the pavement. The blue car was banged up in the rear, but not nearly as bad as my murano. and it turns out that the blue car was a rental! i hope they bought rental insurance.

the driver and passenger appeared to be in their late 60's or early 70's. the driver was male, and got out of the car and walked over to me using his cane. he asked me if i was okay and after i said yes and apologized profusely, he assured me that he had made plenty of mistakes in his lifetime and will probably make even more. he was very cool. he said he was not injured and that the airbags hadn't even deployed (neither had mine - we were only doing about 35 mph when i hit them). The passenger was female and she didn't get out of the car at all. She waited for an ambulance and the emt's put a neck brace on her and out her on a gurney. they left her facing the sun and she had to hold up a hand to shield her eyes. i decided to be as sweet as possible and walked over to her to shield her eyes with my hands. she said, "thank you" in a weak little voice. oh, shit. the emt's came and took her away in an ambulance. i walked back over to the man and asked him if she had prior neck injuries. he kind of rolled his eyes and said something like, "i don't know what's wrong with that woman." oh, shit.

always looking for the silver lining, i noticed that the gas station parking lot where we ended up was about 100 feet from a rental car place. the tow truck arrived to take my murano to the collison place and so i got my stuff out of it and walked over to rent a car. during the process, i tried calling the secretary at the college to let her know what had happened. at that point, my class hadn't started yet, so she could tell the students to hang out for a bit. however, i got her voice mail. i left a message and then tried to call my boss, knowing that she was teaching her own class at that time. after what seemed like forever, they brought my rental - a nissan altima - and i tried one more time to call the secretary. by then it was 20 minutes after class was supposed to start, and i seriously doubted anyone would have stayed. i did get in touch with her this time and she echoed my sentiment, but said that she'd go check anyway. by the time i got to school, the classroom was empty and i had 30 minutes until my next class was supposed to start. i went to the secretary's office and asked her if i had to turn in an absence form since i didn't actually teach that one class. so yes, my pay is being docked because i had an automobile accident and the secretary was not in her office to take my call. where's the justice in that?

yesterday, i woke up at 3:30am to use the bathroom. as i walked across the bedroom, i noticed an unfamiliar sensation. my neck was hurting...bad! it's been years since i have had whiplash, and the last time i had it, i gave it to myself by doing the head-banging thing to rock music. but i could not sleep for the rest of the night. i kept thinking that if i felt that bad, i could only imagine how the people i hit felt. but anyway, i have been able to take it in stride. shit happens, you know? and except for the gold digger old lady, no one got majorly hurt. and i have full coverage insurance. so, let's not sweat the small stuff.