Lightening Crashes.

Yesterday morning, I discovered something I couldn’t have known until that point.

My airbags work.

One minute I was driving down the interstate, looking behind me at the left lane to see if I could switch lanes. The next minute, I was watching helplessly as my car smashed into the van in front of me and bounced backwards.

I don’t remember being so close to the van. I only remember the way the back of it looked as I careened towards it and the smell of smoke that filled my nostrils. By the time I realized what had happened, the air bags were already deflated and my car had come to a stop on the highway. My car, as evidenced by the sagging front bumper and the crookedly erect front hood, was totaled.

I started to cry.

I called work first, then Jason, then my family. It all just happened so fast.

The police were on the scene immediately, as well as the CVS Samaritan, followed by the tow truck. My mom left work to pick me up. As I walked to her car, I noticed something gold glinting on the ground. It was my gold Toyota symbol. I tucked it in my purse – the last symbol of my first car.

My mom took me home to take IBUProfen and lay down. By then, whiplash had set in and my left side was stiffening up. Luckily, I was not hurt elsewhere. No cuts, no bruises, not even burn marks. The only evidence that I’d even been at the accident was a light red slash on my arm where the airbag had popped out and a lipstick stain on the airbag – a kiss goodbye.

Mom took me to the doctor that afternoon. He was surprised I wasn’t hurt much worse than I was. He gave me several prescriptions, including one for Vicodin, and told me to prepare myself for a bad day tomorrow.

I spent the next several hours answering phone calls from insurance and concerned friends. When I finally got the official estimate from the claims office, I wasn’t surprised: $7,400 in damage. In their words, it was a “total loss”. Time to visit the tower and pick up my stuff.

Mom and dad took me out for Chinese. Aside from a brief “I keep telling you to keep your distance, but noooo…” lecture from dad, they weren’t mad, just relieved I was alive. Mom then took me grocery shopping at the Chinese grocer, and then to Walgreens to pick up all my pills. Just to show you how NOT big picture oriented I am, I was more excited to find red bean ice cream than I was in figuring out how I was going to live without a car.

I returned home late, fed Maxi, and thought about my life. At 1:00 in the morning, my roommate woke me up screaming about a cockroach crawling outside my door. It scurried, we screamed, it scurried faster, we screamed louder. After 10 minutes of high pitched screaming, jumping, and shoe throwing, she finally killed it with my skateboard.

I fell back onto my bed and laughed.

Life still goes on.