Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Karmic Collision

I should've known yesterday that my day would be a challenge when on my drive to work a car swerved out of its lane on the highway, perpendicularly crossed two lanes of traffic, drove down a moderately steep but definitely bumpy median towards a gas station, hooked a sharp u-turn- I assume upon the realization of what speeding recklessly into a gas station truly might feel like- into oncoming traffic on the access road, and then stopped abruptly.

In that instant, my mantra turned from a zombie-esque, "coffee. coffee. coffee," to more of a horrified, "Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!"

Apparently, I was not the only one who had a reaction, as several cars had to pull over to steady themselves.. or to stop in case the imminent accident were to require witness reports. I'm not sure which. I do know that if the latter is true, I was certainly one among them since I was weighing whether or not I would be able to: a.)see a car roll 5 times across a median and render aid b.)watch a car drive into the side of a gas station, burst into flames, and then be mentally Ok at having seen that happen c.)watch a car drive headfirst into another car, an all to popular murder/suicide method in this area.

What exactly was my responsibility in a situation like this? What I really wanted to do was keep driving and pretend that nothing happened. But then I'm far too responsible (or weak depending on interpretation) to ever be the girl who drives off to cope with whatever guilty instability witnessing something like that would entail. Luckily for me there were no injuries, only a severe traffic violation. Unfortunately, however, the rest of my day picked up the slack - havoc for whatever karma didn't come around in one specific accident. Five discipline referrals and an injured body later (I fell again at school), I limped my way through my front door, stupidly dedicated to "trying again" tomorrow.

7 comments:

Pam said...

Holy moly! I would have to stop and calm down, too. Do you have any idea what caused this? Texting, maybe? My newest pet peeve. Glad no one was hurt.

Happy Fun Pants said...

I have the same reaction to horrible (possibly) car accidents like that. And I freak out and call 911 to report it too.

It sounds like you had one doozy of a day...my hope is that there was a glassful of wine at the end of it waiting for you.

Amy said...

Hope you have a better day today. I know there will be tons of accidents today. We have a huge snow storm and that is not good. Some people just do not watch what is going on.

Christine said...

Sorry about that. Tiger and I were fighting again. We need to stop doing that in the car.

love,
a Swede you know

Meems said...

Glad you're ok!! :)

Wait, what? Was Hobbes involved?!

Lisa (the girls' moma) said...

Dude, I'm just impressed by the 5 referrals. You go girl! Final exams be damned!!!

Helen McGinn said...

I'm sending you all my good karma for tomorrow. I may live to regret it but the way I see it, I'll get double the day after, right?




Right??

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Karmic Collision

I should've known yesterday that my day would be a challenge when on my drive to work a car swerved out of its lane on the highway, perpendicularly crossed two lanes of traffic, drove down a moderately steep but definitely bumpy median towards a gas station, hooked a sharp u-turn- I assume upon the realization of what speeding recklessly into a gas station truly might feel like- into oncoming traffic on the access road, and then stopped abruptly.

In that instant, my mantra turned from a zombie-esque, "coffee. coffee. coffee," to more of a horrified, "Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!"

Apparently, I was not the only one who had a reaction, as several cars had to pull over to steady themselves.. or to stop in case the imminent accident were to require witness reports. I'm not sure which. I do know that if the latter is true, I was certainly one among them since I was weighing whether or not I would be able to: a.)see a car roll 5 times across a median and render aid b.)watch a car drive into the side of a gas station, burst into flames, and then be mentally Ok at having seen that happen c.)watch a car drive headfirst into another car, an all to popular murder/suicide method in this area.

What exactly was my responsibility in a situation like this? What I really wanted to do was keep driving and pretend that nothing happened. But then I'm far too responsible (or weak depending on interpretation) to ever be the girl who drives off to cope with whatever guilty instability witnessing something like that would entail. Luckily for me there were no injuries, only a severe traffic violation. Unfortunately, however, the rest of my day picked up the slack - havoc for whatever karma didn't come around in one specific accident. Five discipline referrals and an injured body later (I fell again at school), I limped my way through my front door, stupidly dedicated to "trying again" tomorrow.

7 comments:

Pam said...

Holy moly! I would have to stop and calm down, too. Do you have any idea what caused this? Texting, maybe? My newest pet peeve. Glad no one was hurt.

Happy Fun Pants said...

I have the same reaction to horrible (possibly) car accidents like that. And I freak out and call 911 to report it too.

It sounds like you had one doozy of a day...my hope is that there was a glassful of wine at the end of it waiting for you.

Amy said...

Hope you have a better day today. I know there will be tons of accidents today. We have a huge snow storm and that is not good. Some people just do not watch what is going on.

Christine said...

Sorry about that. Tiger and I were fighting again. We need to stop doing that in the car.

love,
a Swede you know

Meems said...

Glad you're ok!! :)

Wait, what? Was Hobbes involved?!

Lisa (the girls' moma) said...

Dude, I'm just impressed by the 5 referrals. You go girl! Final exams be damned!!!

Helen McGinn said...

I'm sending you all my good karma for tomorrow. I may live to regret it but the way I see it, I'll get double the day after, right?




Right??