BOOM crash

Driving Old Blue again doesn't feel strange at all. In fact, it feels completely normal, like no time has passed and I never drove the Honda primarily in the first place.

What's that? You haven't heard about last Tuesday's events?

When I woke up that morning, the world seemed to be giving me little hints as to the day's progression. I started to look for a "cause" shirt for the dress up day at school, but after searching through my closet and my parents' closet and then realizing that I had to leave for school, uh, now, I abandoned my search. I walked briskly outside to the car, got in, turned it on, and turned on the windshield-wipers to scrape the dew away. But it wasn't dew! It was ICE. And instead of turning it into an amusing anecdote about how I threw snowballs at the sidewalk, I hurriedly grabbed a towel from the back seat and began scraping the ice away. My quick motions weren't very efficient, but I thought that I had scraped enough away for me to drive to school. I get in, make a u-turn, and start driving into the rising sun. Oh no, I can't see a damn thing. So I pull over, get out of my car again, grabbed the towel, and scraped vigorously this time. I was running a little late, but I'd been here before. I get back in my car, and continue on to school.

And here is where we get to the fun part.

The is a light on Monroe before you reach the intersection of Monroe and Calabazas, otherwise known as the parking lot. It's an unprotected left turn onto a street with an elementary school, so in the morning it's full of cars who sit in the left-hand lane waiting for a break in the oncoming traffic to turn left. This particular morning, there was one such car waiting to turn, backing up all the cars behind it. There was nobody in the lane ahead of mine. I was proceeding forward. "Ah! I won't be late to school!" I thought. And then I see it. The jutting out of a magentaish-colored car, no signal, no blinker. He swerves into my lane - but it's too late. I stop the car and he'll hit me - and maybe cause the cars behind me to pile up. I continue driving and he'll hit me. So guess what? He hit me. It happened really quick, and I was partially shocked. For a moment I thought that maybe it wasn't scratched at all, maybe the car was dent-proof. I tried to look out the side mirror, but I couldn't see anything. For the better, I decided to turn right onto a side street. The offending car was right behind me. "Oh, you better follow me," I thought. He did. We both pulled over. I got out. And scratched into the side of my gleaming Honda was a huge dent with flakes of magenta in it. I just stared.

"Well..." I said. The driver, a student, probably another senior, came over to me and began apologizing. I went over to his car as well, which had a smashed light and scuffs on the bumper. I called my dad, who was very quick to deal with the situation, and said he's be right there. Then I called 911. While we were waiting for the cop, the guy and I stood in a sort of awkward silence. I wanted to tell him that I was sympathetic to all he was about to go through. When I got into my first accident - that left HARDLY a scratch or even scuff, mind you - I was on the verge of tears. But my sympathy was limited, considering this guy had just put a huge dent in the side of my car. A cop got there pretty quick, and started taking our information. I actually remembered where the insurance info was kept. For that I was pretty proud of myself. My dad got there when the cop was finishing up. He asked if I was alright. I was perfectly alright. Physically, I wasn't injured. Plus, I found comfort in the fact that it wasn't my fault and would not go on my record as a point or anything. It sucked that my car was a little messed up, but in the end, everything would be ok.

I went to school - late, of course (isn't life funny?). By third period the van had replaced the car in the parking lot, AAA had been spoken to, and my car was at the shop.

My car will be in the shop for the next 16 days while $4,000 worth of repair is done to replace the left side of the vehicle. On Friday I'm going to get a rental car, which is the only upside to the whole situation. I'd be okay with driving the van as long as I was sure it wouldn't stop working on me without so much as a warning. Plus, it might be a nice car. Or at least a nice change for a while. I'm hopeful.

Anyways, it's getting late and I have school in the morning, so I'll catch you up on other aspects of my life another time. Deal?