The Eve of Christmas Eve

T'was the mornin' before Christmas Eve and all through the build'n, not much was a stirin', nor a movin'.


Update Moment!!!

I'll update backwards.  Is it opposite day?  I forgot when those were...

This last Sunday, I dropped Jason off at the airport for his visit home during the holidays.  I was sad to see him go, but excited at the same time, since I'd be seeing him this coming Saturday.  As I was on my way to church, about a mile away, I was passing Costco and it was crawling with Christmas shoppers!!!  The parking lot was a mess and overflowing onto the streets as people were coming and going.  I was in the left lane and was avoiding the right hand turning line.  As I was just about to pass a truck that was making a right turn, a lady in a 4Runner decided to floor it and try to make it across the road.  (The light that I had just gone under had just turned green and I was the first in the line of many...)  Just as I was about even with the truck, she struck my passenger front end (I had barely seen her and thought she was going to slam on her brakes as well; I had already kicked my brake through the floor of my car in hopes that I'd avoid impact...too late.) an with the force that she had hit me at and I had been going Hybrid speed of 35 mph at that point, I ended up having my whole entire vehicle thrown into the median.  As she had hit me, I remember seeing a bumper go flying (not sure how high, but higher than any of the trucks driving around with a lift - it is Texas!) through the air and had landed 40 ft away from the spot of collision.  My car was a good 10 ft ahead from where she had hit me in the intersection...  Once my car had stopped, I quickly turned it off and just sat there shaking.  It freaked me out!  A truck had pulled ahead of my car and got out, ran over to see if I was okay, then told me to sit still and just relax.  I didn't even want to see the damage that had been done to my car.  I could tell it couldn't be good because of where I had ended up, plus, the right side of my front end was extremely low.  All I could think about was everyone was okay -- thankfully, but that also, my poor car!!!  I had just bought it two and a half months prior...not even the first oil change yet!  :o(  I quickly swapped out my heels for flip flops that I had luckily worn into the car that morning.  There was no way I would be walking in those on my jell-o like legs.  I decided that I'd try and call my family to come help.  They had just finished up with church and I figured I'd give it a chance to try and call my mom first.  No answer -- not surprising that she wouldn't have it on or even have it on her.  Next, my dad...he didn't have his on either!  (Rare...)  The only person that I KNEW I'd be able to actually get through to was Jacob.  I quickly called him up and sure enough, answered after the second ring.  YAY!!!  I was soooo happy!  I told him that I needed Mom or Dad and that I had been hit.  He had me repeat it and I was loosing control and having the shock of the ordeal start to kick in...  I was able to let them know where I was.  They came quickly and by then, it had probably been almost 20 mins since it had happened.  People were still driving like maniacs and going around my car (I couldn't even move out of the way...) or would pull up in front of me and honk for me to move out of the way...HELLO!!!  Do you not see that my car has a tire that's destroyed and a smashed in corner...?!  I was nervous that I was going to be hit again, very thankful that no one had rear ended me when I had been hit (thinking about that, I'm sure because my car had been thrown over into the median, I was lucky and safe from someone else hitting me from behind...since I was the first car in a long line of cars. 

Anyways... To make a long story short, the lady is insured through USAA (like me), she was at fault and my car is at the body shop getting repaired.  The nice thing is, I'll be out of town starting Saturday morning until next Saturday, visiting Jason and his family up in Washington.  That'll be a fun trip and I'm looking forward to seeing him and meeting his family.  ...My poor car!!!!   I was told that I was lucky that I had had such good control of my vehicle because it would've been so much worse than what had happened...  Yikes!!!  Well, I know it wasn't just me doing the driving...I didn't know what to do in that kind of situation and it didn't feel like I could have much control...  She did a nice number on it and they told me that it wasn't drivable.  Lovely...I had been driving to and from work on Monday.  Yesterday, I was put into a rental from Maryland...right next to the tobacco state - Virginia and it reeks!!!! Yankee Candle!  I LOVE YOU!!!!!  I luckily had a couple Pump 'n' Go car scents to attach to my air conditioner vent and it smells of  Autumn Wreath now.  An apple-y, spicy fall fragrance.  My whole goal with this car from the start was to keep it forever!  It doesn't look that bad in the pictures, but the guy who was checking it out at the body shop was 'Oh man'-ing it ...  I don't want to be hearing that from a guy at the body shop...they see those and worse...  But it was a new car (and still is!) and he asked if it had even had it's first oil change...  Yes, it's sad and I'm sad...BUT!!!  The lady that had hit me, she wasn't thinking about anything but herself and her vehicle -- not realizing my car was new and had the brand new license plates on it...signifying that it was a brand new vehicle...  She told her husband, while my dad and I were right there with them, that now she gets a brand new car since her 4Runner '03 was messed up.  "That was my new car..." I muttered under my breath...

During the whole thing, a couple of my brothers had gotten some pictures, I wasn't even able to think about taking pictures of it with my phone...  So, here are three.  I wish that I had one with the original tire on it.  That was completely messed up.  I'm just thankful that she was insured!!!  Too many motorists here aren't!