Dude, Get on Your Side of the Road!!

^ a bit of an odd post title, no? Well, keep on a-readin' to find out the joy that was my Friday afternoon.

So Friday, 9/12, was a big day for me. My best friend, Mandy, you've all heard about her, was headed to my house to spend the day. She lives in Alabama and was up for a week to visit her parents and me. There's a new Schlotsky's Deli that opened up about 15 minutes from my house, so we decided that's what we were gonna do for lunch. 

I woke up feeling great! I was excited, and so happy to get to be with her. Plus we were going to go out with my Mom and Aaron after they both got off work at one of our favorite restaurants ever, so there was plenty to be excited about. 

So, we go to lunch. Then we stop by the Dollar General (are you surprised? Didn't think so.) so I could pick up a few needed items and then we were headed back through the winding country back-roads to my Mama's house, so I could give her the "grand tour."

We are minding our own business. I'm being a very responsible driver. Mandy is one of the 3 most dearest people to me in this entire world, and I wasn't going to risk driving like a maniac and getting into a bad accident with her in the car. No way, no how. The radio is turned down, I'm not even touching my cell phone, it's in my purse in the backseat. She may have been texting her husband, I don't know.

We come around a curve, very slowly....because I know the road, I know how bad it is, and how big of a blind spot it is these days with the overgrown corn field right beside it. I'm hugging my side of the road because, again, I know the road. But just then, out of, literally, no where, a black 97-ish Altima just appears, on my side of the road no less. I swerve into the opposite lane to miss him, and he swerves out toward a lawn, but then swerves again to miss the lawn and a mailbox... swerving right into my front passenger side. (Next time, bub, hit the freaking mailbox, mmmmk?)

:( My car has a black eye. I drive a 2007 Pontiac  Torrent - a TANK. I paid for this car in CASH in 2008. It's my baby. 

Yeah. Considering HOW FAST this guy was going, this accident could have been SO much worse than it was. If I hadn't have been going like 20mph (seriously, couldn't have been much more than that) it would have completely ruined the front of my car. 

The other car (which I won't post here... just doesn't seem right, it's not MY car, ya know?) has a lovely set of scrape marks down their passenger side and a big ol' dent in the back passenger door. For a second I thought he'd just kept on going, cause he didn't even slow down when he hit me. I pulled into a nearby driveway to be sure Mandy and I were both ok, and then when I saw that the other car had actually stopped (gone down a piece and turned around actually), I jumped out to be sure they were ok (there was a man and woman and three kids, one in a car-seat. My heart SUNK when I heard a baby crying.) Everyone was alright. thankfully. But the first thing the woman said to me was "ISN'T THERE A STOP SIGN THERE????" And the answer to that was "No, there isn't. But I had slowed way down to take the curve anyway." The little girl - about 11 I'm guessing - quickly piped up and said "Oh great! This is our 2nd wreck in - so many weeks-." She was quickly shushed. 

Next thing we did was call the cops - the joys of that are too numerous to tell. And, of course, my insurance agent husband. Mandy called the cops for me, and I called Aaron, who instructed me to immediately take photos of the damage to both vehicles, be sure to get an accident report written up and to remain calm, above all else, as I tend to be a very jittery, anxious type person in those situations.  My headlight lens was sprattled out all over the side of the road (MY SIDE of the road, I might add)

The cops - COP- came and wrote up an accident report but wouldn't say for sure which car was at fault. He just kept telling us the accident report would be ready on Tuesday. (Goody.) The way I saw it then and still see it now, the guy was in MY LANE and  I swerved to miss him, and he did the same but still hit me... in a hurry.  It took the cop forever to get the report written and he spent more time with the driver of the other car than he did with us. Mandy gave a good witness testimony for me there on the spot, backing up everything I'd said, reiterating that the guy was in our lane, going too fast. 

Aaron and I hadn't been married very long, and I was working late hours at a bridal shop. One afternoon a girl I work with and I come out of the store into the back parking lot to see that our cars have been hit (her car had a dent, mine just a scrape). No note. No one had come into the store to tell us they'd hit BOTH of our cars... because the damage to my car wasn't serious at all (not even a dent, just a scrape mark) we painted over it and I've never given it a second thought, you honestly can't tell it's even there. (Funny story to go with that one...  a few days later I was at our "main" store in a different town, and the boss called me in to her office and said she's been told by a reliable source that I had actually been the one to hit my co-workers car. She said "so and so up at the Dairy Queen" -small town folks- "said that they saw you back into her car." I was stunned. So after I stopped laughing I reminded the boss that we weren't even at that store the day that it happened, we were at the store in a completely different town! -  so how could so and so at the DQ have seen it? I also reminded the boss that my car had mysterious damage too, and it was not the type of damage that comes along with backing into into someone, it was like I'd been sideswiped and she'd been backed into, we were parked next to each other in a tiny parking lot.)  A few years ago I rear ended a guy at a stop light, so the drivers side of my front bumper has a teeny little cracked place. But now the passenger side is sporting that super attractive black eye. So the whole front bumper will probably have to be replaced. My blinker is GONE. :(

Woe is me. 

And this couldn't come at a worse time for me either. I go into rehearsals for my next play starting Monday night - the 22nd. This is an every night for 8 weeks thing. It's gonna be tough getting to and from rehearsal in a car with no blinker - a ticket waiting to happen, and I can't afford that, especially if I have to pay to get my car fixed.. And then whenever we get it fixed - hopefully sooon!! - I'll be without it for a few days...maybe weeks. And on top of it all, the last weekend in October, we are going to the Smokey Mountains with Aaron's family and we were planning to take MY car! That's not gonna work with no blinker and a flappy bumper. 

Naturally, being as anxiety stricken as I am, my biggest fear is that somehow or another it will be determined that the wreck was my fault, which it was NOT, but it's a small town and you never know what mood the cops will be in. Aaron, looking at the photos from a professional stand point and listening to what happened from me AND my BFF thinks it will be determined to be the other drivers fault. My BFF is convinced it's the other drivers fault, but I can't help but be a bit mentally tormented. I'm terrified. I've gone to close my eyes on Friday night, and last night and all I can see is the two cars colliding and then reading the accident report and seeing that it was my fault. Lord help us, I can't handle it. 

Now, wasn't that the most thrilling way to spend your Friday afternoon? YES! I don't recommend it. Skip it. Don't and say you did. No, scratch that... just DON'T all around.

So on Tuesday I'm taking my ol' black eyed Pontiac and headed to get the police report. Wish me lots of luck and send me super good vibes that everything works out. I just don't know what we will do if it goes the other way.  

I am so thankful that no one was hurt and that the damage to both cars was as limited as it was! This accident could have gone out of control VERY quickly and very easily.