I have a little catching up to do on this blog- even though this is the fastest I’ve had a recurring post! Well on Tuesday of last week, I was heading to my house (for some sustenance- lunch) after a morning of classes. I was on Slide, a major road in Lubbock, and I was turning right onto 82nd, another major street that runs perpendicular. So, I am turning, and still kind of looking to my left to make sure no one was coming on 82nd St. And in an alley pretty soon after this intersection, there is a –moron—backing up his truck and trailer out of the alley, perpendicular onto 82nd, top 5 busiest streets in Lubbock. Out of it? Scatterbrained? Unaware? I don’t know what the word for him is. Anyway, when I look onto the road he is in the process of backing up, as I am approaching, to avoid hitting him, I swerve, and my car goes up onto the sidewalk, the sidewalk has a Telephone pole just FEET away from where I am, and I just remember looking at that pole, thinking GOD please don’t let this be what I think it is. That’s the last thing I remember seeing, because I blacked out after that. I wake up to find pedestrians surrounding my car, I realize, once again, what happened, and I immediately call my dad. At this point I am conscious and look in the mirror, wondering how bad I was banged up. And when I look, I see that my mouth is bleeding. I don’t remember this at all, but I bit my tongue (with a lot of force) upon impact. I notice the the people outside my car are trying to talk to me, so I open my door. And they are asking me if I can get out and walk. I do manage to get up, and the first thing I see when I look down is how ginormous my ankle is- softball-sized now, I am not even exaggerating. The term kankle is an understatement! But I am like, oh well, I am walking on it, its obviously not broken. And the first thing I say is “Oh my gosh, my CAR!” And this really genuinely concerned guy, who was talking to me the most, was like, But you are ok! And I was like, but my car!!! (This car was my high school graduation present, so I have only had it 3 years and I still really like it and probably wouldn’t trade it. So I am really upset I got in a wreck. It’s a 2005 Honda Accord Coope. Reliable, sporty enough, sun roof, and most importantly 6-disc cd changer AND such good GAS MILEAGE, not to mention SAFE- all front and side airbags came out). Everything you could ask for in a car. But I didn’t even look back to see the damage, because a Fire EMS was sent immediately. All I remember is them putting a neck brace around me, I thought what is that about? And them asking me which hospital I wanted to go to. After they asked me, I told them I had no back or neck pain- thank God! That is the worst injury and one of the most common in car accidents. When I get to the hospital, I have, who knows how many x-rays. I lost count. I was there almost 5 hours, but I slept probably 2. If you called me, I don’t remember what I said to you! I was so hyped up on pain killers. They gave me injections and said it was “like Tylenol on steroids.” I left with an arm sling, bandaged ankle, and crutches. The nurse was like, you may need these (the crutches). And he was like, how tall are you? – “5’9’’” – Oh we’re gonna need to adjust them! And I was like, “Oh don’t worry about it, I probably won’t use them- theyre kind of dorky.” Haha my mom ALWAYS does this- she speaks for me and goes, “oh no she doesn’t mean that, that’s the pain killers talking!” –No….actually I really think that. If my foot was broken and really couldn’t walk I’d use them, but that’s it. lol. Anyways, I take them just in case. Well anyone who’s been in a car accident knows what a head ache it is. This is my first one, and it was scary, a physical pain, and just a pain in the neck all together (metaphorically!) I never want this to happen again. I consider myself a really good driver, this accident really did catch me by surprise. (as it would anyone) But lately I have been really cautious how I drive because I am the nanny for these girls. Taylor is 7 and Landrie is 4. Being their nanny involves driving- a lot. I pick them up from school everyday and avoiding accidents in that parking lot is crazy in itself. Soccer moms +cell phones+boat-sized SUVs= not a good combination. I always get in and out and quick as possible. Taylor and Landrie, the girls I pick up have come accustomed to me sayin, “there are so many horrible drivers out there.” You know the usual comments after you see some one do something careless. So one day, this person just switched lanes. And I was definitely taking up that spot- hello. And Taylor just goes, “Oh people just don’t know how to drive!” haha, I was like, oh you learn so well ;) She told her mom, I don’t know why Meredith got in an accident, she is a good driver, really! But one time, we were late to dance, and I was kind of swingin around to get in this parking spot, and she was like “you are a crazy driver.” lol. Admittingly, I can be. But seriously I did not see this accident coming and it didn’t happen because I was being “crazy” or wreckless then. I haven’t driven since the accident, but I have a feeling I am going to drive like a grandma- double check all mirrors before changing lanes, actually GO the speed limit, etc.
So right now, the situation is, my car is in a wreck shop, and there is a high probability it is totaled. I was definitely in better shape than my car was  I am glad, I am not badly injured, of course! I am so fortunate, but the car liability is just one of those head aches involved in all this mess. The, like I aptly named him before, moron, claims he WAS NOT backing up. However, there are 3 eye witnesses backing me up to say he was indeed in reverse and moving onto the street. Whatever, he’s trying to get out of it. Not surprised. Our insurance company was already informed, and they said they will just sue his company the difference if he doesn’t pay.
Well so all of this has really enlightened me on how injured, handicapped, or people recovering from surgery must feel all the time. I feel like I sympathize with Tyra- you can probably guess what I am talking about. You know her overly dramatic (so-called) documentaries on what it’s like to be homeless, overweight, black, a middle-class white male (just kidding, she didn’t do the last one). I say so-called, because honestly who really associates a genuine documentary, and thinks Tyra Banks would be the perfect candidate to play a part in one. But it’s her show, and I do give her “snaps” for enlightening people about those kind of issues. And what I am sayin is, IT’S TRUE! Now that I am “the injured one” I see what it’s like! People feel sorry for you. And not the kind of attention you want! Its one thing if its sympathy. But if its pity, its like seriously quit. Like this one random college girl saw my arm in a sling, and was like “Are you ok?” Its like, NOOOO I am totally fine, this ankle brace and arm sling I just wear for preventative reasons! And then my naïve former beauty queen professor didn’t even believe me. I walk in, and she saw I was obviously with my arm sling and foot wrapped, and I just stated that, yeah I was in a car accident, explained to her what happened, and just asked where a chair was I could pull up to prop my foot up. She was like, “oh here, use this one in the front.” And then went on to say, well you don’t LOOK like you’ve been in an accident. I mean usually people have bruises and scars all over!” And I was just like, yeah I was REAL fortunate!” What I wanted to be like was, you really want to see bruises, I will show you, if you reaaallly want to know…” (I do have like 3 areas of bruising, 2 on my hips and one on my chest where the seatbelt was. And then I have scarring on my arm). My friend was like, alright bitch. But my dad knows her personally and was like, she probably just meant you look like you are in good shape for being in a wreck. And I’m inclined to think like my dad, because, 1. I do like her and know she has good intentions. 2. She’s extremely naïve!!! Read a post on this blog about her, Mitzi. She truly means well but is just kind of unaware sometimes. So I totally get the vibe of people treating you differently!! I see how handicapped people would be annoyed by this. I actually had a pretty good friend at A&M who is handicapped. It made me think if I ever made him feel this way. But I knew him so well, I never really paid much attention to his disability. In fact he would let me hitch a ride on the back of his motorized wheel chair and cruise around with him! Makin goooood time is what I’m talkin bout ;) Anyway, I am slowly recovering. It’s so hard to be patient. I told my doctor I was sick of my swollen kankle and wanted them to just amputate the whole stupid friggin thing. He was like, now you are going to learn a good lesson in patience! ;) Well I certainly am. I later discovered though, a small DETAIL they forgot to inform me about. In the hospital they just said I had a sprained ankle. Well when I went to my primary care doctor a day or two later, he was looking at my history he got from the hospital, and informed me I had a degree 4 otherwise known as the worst possible sprain you can get!!! He said I had a microchip, meaning, a piece of bone actually broke away after the tendons ruptured. Ok so tonight my roommate and I are texting, about a movie I wanted to see, and she was telling me about the “outlandish director” and she was like I have no idea what movies he’s done, you might want to google it. That reminded me, I wanted to google sprained ankles, because this was the first one I had ever had, and was not really familiar with them. So I type in “degree 4 sprain ankle” click the Wikipedia reference, and find out category 4’s require SURGERY!!!! They never mentioned that and I was riled up to discover that lil DETAIL…Anyway, all my flowers make me feel better, and resting of course is key. I am feeling better. It just made me realize how dangerous cars are. I want to bike everywhere, no gas required, and you stay away from idiots backing up perpendicular to the road. I am thankful for the prayers and thoughts! And drivers everywhere are in my prayers, I hope this never happens to me again, and I hope no one else has this happen either! Its kind of inevitable with the careless drivers out there, and how much we depend on driving, BUUUT it’s really nothing you want to happen. Be extremely cautious!! Like my granddad says, remember, you are not only driving for yourself, you have to drive defensively for other people’s mistakes.