6.12.2011

It's Been Seven Hours and Fifteen days or, Nothing Compares 2U

Does anyone else still sing Sinead O'Connor songs?

No?

Just me?

Huh. I can really belt it out at home.  Sinead's tape was one of my very first cassette tapes. Ever. It was Sinead and Madonna's Like a Prayer. Loved them both. I've included a much older O'Connor for you, if you'd like to listen while you read.




And actually, I was thinking that next week will be the two year anniversary of my car accident. So "it's been two years and zero days...since they tried to take my car away..."

Yeah. If you don't know me well or haven't been reading long, I've got a *slight* addiction to my car. It's a Subaru. An Outback. When I got my job here in Arizona my dad packed it full of my stuff, I added my cat to the passenger seat, and off we went. My grandma would say that we were "off like a dirty diaper." Is my grandma the only one who says that?

Anyway, I was sitting at a red light near where I work, in the left turn lane. Facing north, wanting to turn west. Got it pictured in your head? A car going east and a car going west ran THEIR red light and I think that one of them might have been turning? Who knows. Regardless, both truck and SUV went spinning around in the intersection, connected. The SUV came loose, shot out of the intersection, and came towards me head on. If you would like to visualize my expression, it was one of disbelief. Mouth open. "Why the face!" and "Why me?" kept running through my head. Then, of all the amazing things, the SUV turned at last minute and didn't hit me. They went past my passenger side and I thought I was in the clear. Just freakin' kidding. They hit the rear passenger side. Hard. And then I was sitting there in six lanes of traffic, no one stopping for the three car accident (welcome to Phoenix, people). I couldn't get out of my car until an officer stopped traffic to let me out. (Dad, this time I remembered to put it in park. You only forget to do that just the one time.)

 I called Jeremiah because I was flipping out and sad. Then I called a coworker who raced down to be with me. What a good friend. I was a shaky, crying mess. Mostly because I think that I treat others how I want to be treated and I didn't think I deserved being hit while sitting at a red light. And yes, it was a delight calling my insurance company to tell them that I was hit while at a standstill. So I was rear-ended? No. Well, how did I get hit? I must have been moving a little? No. Just so you can get in-the-moment-pissed-off with me, both drivers were uninsured and driving cars that didn't belong to them. Again, welcome to Phoenix. Luckily, the owners of the cars DID have insurance and in the end, I win. I always do.

Subaru held up like a pro. Poor thing took the brunt of the hit. Somewhere I have pictures of the SUV that hit me and they were in much worse shape. Well, duh, but I mean specifically from hitting MY car, not from the other accident.

It was over four thousand dollars damage and they still didn't total my car. Subarus hold a lot of their resale value. I'm surprised you didn't know that (name the movie). They had to replace the whole side panel and the back one, too.

 And I'm still in Subaru to this very day. Someday very soon I might need a new car. And I will probably cry, because that's what I do.  But I will remember how Subaru took care of me and it is that thought that will keep me moving on.

Anyone else have weird car attachments?

And in case you would like original Sinead, here you go:


2 comments:

Cait @ Hernando House said...

Your car is such a champ! I miss my wagon. Hardcore. Sadly I had to get rid of it before college when my parents decided it wouldn't make it to Tallahassee and back very well. (It wasn't a Subaru, that they probably would have let me keep, it was a 10 year old Saturn.)

I am also super attached to my current car, though. Probably because I didn't die in it when I got rear ended at a red light by - wait for it - a semi.

Try making that phone call to your parents. "Mom, Dad? I got rear ended. By a semi." Cue my dad freaking out until he realized/my mom reminded him that if I was talking/calling I wasn't dead.

I will definitely cry when I have to get rid of my car one day.

Emily said...

Ohmygosh, rear ended by a semi? Glad to hear you are okay!