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Usually I'm not a fan of the whole Thanksgiving thing--and this year in particular, I was so stressed about homework I just wanted to give the whole thing a miss--but I've landed myself with something very big to be thankful for this year.
I am very, very thankful that me and Adam are alive. I am thankful that seatbelts are mandatory and our parents drilled it into our generation's heads to always, always wear them. And I am thankful that I had an Acura and that they are very sturdy cars. And you can probably guess where I'm going with this.
Yesterday I was giving Adam Kraus a ride back home to Jersey for Thanksgiving when I hit a rumble strip on I-84. I had picked up my Diet Coke so I was driving one-handed for all of ten seconds, and I glanced down for half a second to put it back in the cupholder, and hit the rumble strip. Everything that happened next happened really, really fast--I corrected one-handed and the car swerved way to the right, then I tried to straighten out with both hands and went off the road to the left. I remember a couple seconds of straddling the shoulder of the road and the median and being unable to straighten out or slow down, and then the car barrel-rolled into the grass. According to the towing company, we think we flipped six times. The car landed upside down.
I can't remember if I opened my door or just climbed out the window (the glass was completely gone, obviously), but I undid my seatbelt, grabbed my cellphone, got out of the car, and called 911. I'm very glad I found my cellphone, especially since it wasn't in my pocket at the time--it was next to me under the parking brake--and I ended up clinging to it for sanity almost as much as I ended up using it. A bunch of people stopped, and I asked one of the guys where we were so I could tell the police (Waterbury, CT, exit 17), and the rest of them got Adam out of the car. His head was bleeding and he seemed really confused. While we waited for the cops and the ambulance to show up I called my mother. Somebody got my purse out of the car so I could give the cops my license, &c, and then Adam and I got bundled into the ambulance and strapped down on stretchers and shipped to Waterbury Hospital. I was on the phone with my mom almost the whole time, while the cops and medics and whoever were asking me questions, which must have been really annoying. (Also, talking on a cell phone while strapped down with foam blocks taped to either side of your head is really uncomfortable.) Mom called Dad, who was actually also driving from Worcester to Jersey and was about an hour behind us, and called the insurance company, etc. etc. (Over the course of the day she called me back every half hour or so and I wound up having her e-mail my teachers to ask for an extension and other such stuff that probably could have waited.)
At the hospital a cop gave me an accident summary, the name of the towing company and the number of the state police to call and get the number of the towing company, a ticket ($103 for failing to stay in my lane or stay in control of the vehicle or somesuch, but not for speeding, which I was probably doing. Cop said from what he's seen you don't have to be speeding to get in an accident on a rumble strip; he's seen way too many people panic when they hit them doing barely 60. I think I might have been going a bit faster than that), Adam's wallet and whatever else was in his pocket in a plastic bag, and my license back. Got taken off the stretcher, was poked a bit and had a light shined in my eyes, then the doctor said I seemed perfectly fine except for a superficially chipped tooth, a slightly loosened one, and some bruising. They gave me some crackers and Tylenol and left me alone for twenty minutes to see if I started spasming, and when I didn't, I got a my discharge sheet and instructions to follow up with a dentist. During those twenty minutes the adrenaline started wearing off and I actually got really bored and started texting my brother, and thinking about that story I wrote earlier in the semester about the girl with the haunted car and thinking maybe I shouldn't write stories in which horrible things happen to characters that are too much like me.
Dad showed up about then and we went to see Adam, who had scrapes all over his hands and the side of his face and was hooked up to an IV, but was otherwise perfectly okay. The hospital had made no attempt to contact his family, so I lent him my cellphone. The hospital told us he'd be ready to be discharge in about ten minutes, so we sat around for about two and a half hours until that actually happened. Sometime during that time it occurred to me that my purse was completely spattered in his blood and I should ask the nurse for an alcohol wipe to clean it. Then the doctor put a couple of stitches in one of Adam's fingers and we actually got discharged.
Dad got in contact with Bobkat Towing, but they were out of Waterbury for the holiday by then so we'll have to have someone go up on Friday morning to get our stuff. The woman on the line told us they'd recovered Adam's laptop and his backpack, and that they hadn't been able to open the trunk to recover my suitcase. They said the car was completely totaled, and it was then that they said they think it flipped six times. I hadn't been counting but I'd only been guessing two or three. Dad seemed almost impressed that I had "beat" him--when he was in college, he'd been in an accident off I-84 where the car had flipped "only" four times, and walked away completely unhurt.
My laptop is probably also completely destroyed. Even if it might have survived six flips if I'd taken proper care of it, I'd been lazy that morning and had just closed it and thrown it in my suitcase, instead of turning it all the way off and putting in the laptop case. There wasn't much else in my suitcase except some clothes and toiletries, my Netflix movies, and all of my homework. Which was kind of a lot of homework, really. I really hope I can get my books and notebook back because even if I get an extension I *will* have to do it eventually and some of those French books are wicked hard to find.
The rest of the ride home was nice and uneventful, although I kept having mini panic attacks every time Dad got in the left lane, or changed lanes without signaling, or passed anybody, or took a sip of his coffee, or any of those other things that he is a good enough driver to get away with safely and I, apparently, am not. At one point his phone rang and he actually took *both* hands off the wheel for a second to pick it up and we drifted about two inches closer to the rumble strip, and I involuntarily started whining "Daaad!" until he put his hands back on the wheel.
Oh, and I'd spent a bunch of time at the hospital sorting through all the cards and shit at the bottom of my purse trying to find my health insurance card and thinking I'd lost it, but I found it on the ride home. It had slid into the wrapper of the giant bar of chocolate I keep in my purse "in case of dementors." Go figure.
At any rate, we got Adam home, and his parents seemed very glad to see us both alive and relatively unhurt, which just made me feel more guilty for having almost killed him because if I want to be an impatient driver and pass everybody and kill myself doing it that's my business, but my passengers are my responsibility. Then I went home and Mom fussed over me, and I got to take a good look in the mirror and discovered that the teeth situation feels a lot weirder than it looks, but that the entire left side of my face is bruised and swollen and I have some sort of minor abrasion on my cheek and eyebrow. I also have some interesting-looking bruises developing on the insides of my thighs where I hit the steering wheel turning upside-down. Overall I am in much better shape than I really have any right to be.
I got an email from Professor Tapply saying that he was glad I was okay, and that when he heard about me getting out of the hospital he was reminded about that haunted car story I wrote (ha!), and not to stress about what I can and can't get to him before the semester ends because it's a pass/fail course and he thinks I'm a very good writer and he hopes I'll submit some things to upcoming contests. So that made me feel a lot better. ^.^
Friday I have an appointment with the oral surgeon, an appointment with the eye doctor (me and Adam both lost our glasses), somebody has to go back up to Waterbury to get our stuff, and so far I am still planning to go see Twilight with Leah because I could really use some mindless sitting in a movie theater and giggling after this. But today I am going to take a really hot shower and read Harry Potter and just be happy that I'm all in one piece.
I am very, very thankful that me and Adam are alive. I am thankful that seatbelts are mandatory and our parents drilled it into our generation's heads to always, always wear them. And I am thankful that I had an Acura and that they are very sturdy cars. And you can probably guess where I'm going with this.
Yesterday I was giving Adam Kraus a ride back home to Jersey for Thanksgiving when I hit a rumble strip on I-84. I had picked up my Diet Coke so I was driving one-handed for all of ten seconds, and I glanced down for half a second to put it back in the cupholder, and hit the rumble strip. Everything that happened next happened really, really fast--I corrected one-handed and the car swerved way to the right, then I tried to straighten out with both hands and went off the road to the left. I remember a couple seconds of straddling the shoulder of the road and the median and being unable to straighten out or slow down, and then the car barrel-rolled into the grass. According to the towing company, we think we flipped six times. The car landed upside down.
I can't remember if I opened my door or just climbed out the window (the glass was completely gone, obviously), but I undid my seatbelt, grabbed my cellphone, got out of the car, and called 911. I'm very glad I found my cellphone, especially since it wasn't in my pocket at the time--it was next to me under the parking brake--and I ended up clinging to it for sanity almost as much as I ended up using it. A bunch of people stopped, and I asked one of the guys where we were so I could tell the police (Waterbury, CT, exit 17), and the rest of them got Adam out of the car. His head was bleeding and he seemed really confused. While we waited for the cops and the ambulance to show up I called my mother. Somebody got my purse out of the car so I could give the cops my license, &c, and then Adam and I got bundled into the ambulance and strapped down on stretchers and shipped to Waterbury Hospital. I was on the phone with my mom almost the whole time, while the cops and medics and whoever were asking me questions, which must have been really annoying. (Also, talking on a cell phone while strapped down with foam blocks taped to either side of your head is really uncomfortable.) Mom called Dad, who was actually also driving from Worcester to Jersey and was about an hour behind us, and called the insurance company, etc. etc. (Over the course of the day she called me back every half hour or so and I wound up having her e-mail my teachers to ask for an extension and other such stuff that probably could have waited.)
At the hospital a cop gave me an accident summary, the name of the towing company and the number of the state police to call and get the number of the towing company, a ticket ($103 for failing to stay in my lane or stay in control of the vehicle or somesuch, but not for speeding, which I was probably doing. Cop said from what he's seen you don't have to be speeding to get in an accident on a rumble strip; he's seen way too many people panic when they hit them doing barely 60. I think I might have been going a bit faster than that), Adam's wallet and whatever else was in his pocket in a plastic bag, and my license back. Got taken off the stretcher, was poked a bit and had a light shined in my eyes, then the doctor said I seemed perfectly fine except for a superficially chipped tooth, a slightly loosened one, and some bruising. They gave me some crackers and Tylenol and left me alone for twenty minutes to see if I started spasming, and when I didn't, I got a my discharge sheet and instructions to follow up with a dentist. During those twenty minutes the adrenaline started wearing off and I actually got really bored and started texting my brother, and thinking about that story I wrote earlier in the semester about the girl with the haunted car and thinking maybe I shouldn't write stories in which horrible things happen to characters that are too much like me.
Dad showed up about then and we went to see Adam, who had scrapes all over his hands and the side of his face and was hooked up to an IV, but was otherwise perfectly okay. The hospital had made no attempt to contact his family, so I lent him my cellphone. The hospital told us he'd be ready to be discharge in about ten minutes, so we sat around for about two and a half hours until that actually happened. Sometime during that time it occurred to me that my purse was completely spattered in his blood and I should ask the nurse for an alcohol wipe to clean it. Then the doctor put a couple of stitches in one of Adam's fingers and we actually got discharged.
Dad got in contact with Bobkat Towing, but they were out of Waterbury for the holiday by then so we'll have to have someone go up on Friday morning to get our stuff. The woman on the line told us they'd recovered Adam's laptop and his backpack, and that they hadn't been able to open the trunk to recover my suitcase. They said the car was completely totaled, and it was then that they said they think it flipped six times. I hadn't been counting but I'd only been guessing two or three. Dad seemed almost impressed that I had "beat" him--when he was in college, he'd been in an accident off I-84 where the car had flipped "only" four times, and walked away completely unhurt.
My laptop is probably also completely destroyed. Even if it might have survived six flips if I'd taken proper care of it, I'd been lazy that morning and had just closed it and thrown it in my suitcase, instead of turning it all the way off and putting in the laptop case. There wasn't much else in my suitcase except some clothes and toiletries, my Netflix movies, and all of my homework. Which was kind of a lot of homework, really. I really hope I can get my books and notebook back because even if I get an extension I *will* have to do it eventually and some of those French books are wicked hard to find.
The rest of the ride home was nice and uneventful, although I kept having mini panic attacks every time Dad got in the left lane, or changed lanes without signaling, or passed anybody, or took a sip of his coffee, or any of those other things that he is a good enough driver to get away with safely and I, apparently, am not. At one point his phone rang and he actually took *both* hands off the wheel for a second to pick it up and we drifted about two inches closer to the rumble strip, and I involuntarily started whining "Daaad!" until he put his hands back on the wheel.
Oh, and I'd spent a bunch of time at the hospital sorting through all the cards and shit at the bottom of my purse trying to find my health insurance card and thinking I'd lost it, but I found it on the ride home. It had slid into the wrapper of the giant bar of chocolate I keep in my purse "in case of dementors." Go figure.
At any rate, we got Adam home, and his parents seemed very glad to see us both alive and relatively unhurt, which just made me feel more guilty for having almost killed him because if I want to be an impatient driver and pass everybody and kill myself doing it that's my business, but my passengers are my responsibility. Then I went home and Mom fussed over me, and I got to take a good look in the mirror and discovered that the teeth situation feels a lot weirder than it looks, but that the entire left side of my face is bruised and swollen and I have some sort of minor abrasion on my cheek and eyebrow. I also have some interesting-looking bruises developing on the insides of my thighs where I hit the steering wheel turning upside-down. Overall I am in much better shape than I really have any right to be.
I got an email from Professor Tapply saying that he was glad I was okay, and that when he heard about me getting out of the hospital he was reminded about that haunted car story I wrote (ha!), and not to stress about what I can and can't get to him before the semester ends because it's a pass/fail course and he thinks I'm a very good writer and he hopes I'll submit some things to upcoming contests. So that made me feel a lot better. ^.^
Friday I have an appointment with the oral surgeon, an appointment with the eye doctor (me and Adam both lost our glasses), somebody has to go back up to Waterbury to get our stuff, and so far I am still planning to go see Twilight with Leah because I could really use some mindless sitting in a movie theater and giggling after this. But today I am going to take a really hot shower and read Harry Potter and just be happy that I'm all in one piece.