A Day in the Life: Part II

Well. My Day in the Life post couldn’t have posted in better time had I tried. Unfortunately for me, my lax day of running errands and chores turned into a hot mess.

So here’s my Day in the Life: Part II, for those of you who are at all interested.

6:00 am — wake up, run 5 miles

7:45 am — hubby leaves for work

8:30 am — I start the car and notice that it’s snowing a substantial amount. I don’t think much of it because it’s Cleveland, I have a 4WD vehicle, and I’m a native so I know how this goes. I did mention it to Boo when we pulled out of the driveway though. I said, “Wow, look at these roads.” His response? “Yeah, they are so clear!” (Were they? I think not.)

8:50 am — drop Boo off at preschool. I notice a souped up silver Wrangler in the parking lot, and I make mention of it to Boo. We both comment that it’s awesome.

8:55 am — make a left turn, see silver Wrangler continuing straight in my rearview mirror. I don’t notice any other cars.

8:56 am — get rear-ended.

F.M.L.

W.T.F.

O.M.G.

Add whatever 3-letter acronym you’d like.

I was really lucky that I didn’t came away with whiplash or some other kind of injury. To those of you who ever experience an injury like that, it’s worth remembering that lawyers in Springfield IL are on hand to assist with legal matters in the aftermath of such an accident.
Of note: I’ve never been in a car accident before. My friend has when she was in Spain and she’s the only person I know who’s been that unfortunate. She had to get a car accident lawyer (or as the Spanish would say abogados de choques) help her get compensation for the crash. While I’ve always been prepared and “known” what to do in an accident situation, I never prepared myself for what to do when I had kids in the car. At the time of impact, Little Bee started crying because it scared her so much. I immediately stopped my car, theatrically threw open my door and ran over to her door. Thankfully she was fine, just scared. My friend recommended I buy a dash cam from BlackBoxMyCar so that I have footage if I ever were to crash, but I haven’t got round to buying one yet!

8:57 am — the other driver gets out, and it’s someone from Boo’s preschool. She’s a nanny to one of the kids in his class. I’ve never talked to her before but I’ve seen her and I know the family she works for. At this point she says she’s not from here and she needs to call her family. At the time, I actually had no idea she was a live-in au pair. I thought she was just a sitter, so I was a little confused.

While she was busy calling her family, I called my husband who, of course, didn’t answer his phone. So I texted him “Car accident call me,” all while shaking and completely freaking out. My friend told me after the accident that my insurance cost might go up a little, she recommended I checked out cheapautoinsurance.co.uk but I haven’t got round to it yet.

Long story short: everyone was fine, the cars appeared minimally damaged (though mine started making a funky noise as soon as I started driving, and I later noticed the wheel well is rubbing up against the tire. Oy.), and the officer on the scene was very nice and helpful. Heck, the officer I called and spoke to on the phone was really awesome, too.

I had some errands to run (remember how uneventful they were supposed to be? yeah, right) so I took Little Bee to Target. We putzed around for a while because I was kind of freaked out and I didn’t really know what to do with myself. Plus I wanted to observe Button and make sure she was all good.

10:40 am — we arrive home, I pee (had to pee this entire time, by the way), and Little Bee gets to watch a show. Mickey Mouse, of course. During this time I received a call from the family to make sure we were okay (very nice of them to check in on us), I did some social media-ing, and just took a minute to breathe and assess the situation.

11:15 am — the spot behind my left knee starts hurting. You know, where all the tendons are essentially. The question is: is it from my run this morning, or from the accident? I didn’t think much of it but as the time passed, it started hurting a little more. I was thinking it was from the accident.

12:00 pm — lunch time

1:00 pm — preschool pickup. When I got in my car to leave for pickup, I immediately knew my leg was hurting from the accident. It hurts in the exact spot where my leg rests on my seat.

Insert 3-letter acronym here.

I honestly don’t even want to do a play-by-play of the rest of the afternoon. It involved a lot of doctor searching, trying to figure out when we’re going to get my car fixed, and calls to/from insurance. What a mess. And this couldn’t come at a worse time. I’m training for a marathon so if my leg is at all injured, I’m going to be super bummed. It’s winter in Cleveland and I’ve made it 30+ years without getting into an accident, but come on! Now?! Gah.

I’m thankful no one was seriously injured, and I’m really thankful my son wasn’t with us. The car hit us on his side, and the passenger side front seat headrest broke open. I’m not sure how or why, but that tells me the impact was significant on that side. I can only imagine how hard his head would have hit. Thank god.

Now I get to pick up the pieces, hope to God I can run without any pain, and get my car fixed. Poor girl! I love my car!