All I really wanted to say to anyone that comes across this post is to PLEASE, for the LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, don’t drive distracted. Don’t play with your phone. Keep your eyes on the road.

Two days ago, after getting off from work, I ran home to change and then headed to the church where I am designated to #vote. I had a little while before I needed to get Sylas off of the bus, so I decided to see how the new restaurant was coming along – opening day was yesterday! I was there a matter of minutes, merely congratulating them and I wanted to see it one last time before it was filled with people. I checked my watch and decided that I should head home to beat the school bus. It was 3:34pm. It takes a while to get across town with rush hour traffic, though I’m sure not as long as it does in the city. I came to a stop light that had just turned red as I pulled up. There were at least six additional cars in front of me waiting. I sat there for maybe a minute when out of the blue, she plowed into my rear end. It was forceful enough that my purse and sunglasses landed on the floorboard. I flew forward – its truly a miracle that I didn’t hit my head. It took me no more than a few seconds to realize what happened. I quickly got out of the car and asked if she was OK. She tried to apologize to me, and I was completely rude, but I interrupted her with my index finger and called 911. I have no Idea how my mind was so clear in the moment except for the huge rush of adrenaline coursing through my body. Immediately after hanging up with the dispatcher, once again she tried talking to me when I began to yell at her that I needed to call my son’s father to go get him off of the bus, he’s only five!  At that point, there were a matter of three minutes before Sylas would get home from school. I called Javier, sparing the details, just urging him to take a different route to get home as we were now blocking traffic and he wouldn’t be able to get through. After hanging up with him, I called the school to see if they could have the bus driver take Sylas back to the school where we could pick him up there instead. By the grace of God, the bus left late that day and had just left the school grounds. Fortunately, Javier did make it home in time, but they did tell the bus driver to not let Sylas off if there was nobody waiting for him. I took photos and video of the damage and the scene, and the police arrived. The police had us pull our cars off into a parking lot where they took both of our insurance information and driver’s licenses and helped us fill out exchange forms.

I am so glad that it didn’t turn out any worse than it did. She pushed my car about two to three feet forward with the force of impact, clearly she didn’t engage the brakes at all. I do have whiplash, which I went to the doctor for yesterday. Nobody was seriously injured, and neither of us had our kids in the car. Thank goodness she has insurance or this would be a nightmare. Nearly three thousand dollars in damage to my car alone, with a subsidy for possible further damage to the framework under my bumper. It could end up costing well over 3k to get my car fixed. Like I said though, she had insurance so I’m just trying to get the paperwork pushed through to get the car in the shop. It was honestly probably the worst day I’ve had this year. I’ve been dealing with some grief type symptoms over the last couple of days, maybe even PTSD too, I think because I’m upset that this has disrupted my life a lot. I’m having to make appointments and phone calls and answer emails and wait back for answers, all while trying to keep on top of everything and make sure things are moving smoothly. I’m stressed, and this couldn’t have come at a worse time, with Javier going back to work, I have no help at home with the kids. Making phone calls with yelling kids in the background is hard, and stressful. I am having to figure out babysitting schedules because I need to make appointments for the car, and for myself, and just while we are both working, making sure that everybody has a place to go. I’m scared of not being home for Sylas now, anal about checking the clock as soon as I get home. I used to go to the store for a bit before he would get home, but now, I’m worried that I could get in another accident and Javier would be at work, and nobody could be home for him. I prefer to not even take that street anymore.

I know that I’m not the only person who has been in an accident, and many people have had it much worse. But I don’t handle stress well, honestly. And this has been a bit much for me.