A Weekend in Anna's Life

Well, this last weekend being Good Friday and Easter, was a fairly busy looking schedule, but it looked a little boring to me, so I made some impromptu changes. We didn't have classes on Good Friday, but since Mom, Andrew and Rachel weren't getting back from their Pennsylvania trip until late Friday night, I didn't really have any reason to rush right home Friday to an empty house. I left the school around 11am planning on getting home and having some time to finish off my homework, and then go and have supper and a movie with Becky and family.

Around noon-ish as I was driving down I-94 the weather started getting bad. It was snowing pretty heavily, traffic was slowed way down, and the roads were starting to get bad. I was stuck behind this semi, and he was making all the snow swirl around right in front of me, so that I could barely see. I decided to pass the guy so that I could see better. As I was in the left hand lane next to this semi I saw the vehicle in front of me start fishtailing really badly. There was probably a couple car lengths between us so I had a little bit of time to figure out what I was going to do. I touched the brakes and immediately heard the squeal of tires sliding on ice. So I checked out my other options. I could go to the right and probably be decapitated by a semi, or to the left into the deep ditch and probably roll my car, or I could hit the people in front of me. I remember all of this running through my head, and then the rest is kind of blurry. I remember seeing that I was coming up on someone way too fast, and slamming on the brakes, hearing the squeal of tires on ice again, and then the crunch of metal on metal. The airbag went off, my car was just coming to a stop and I was getting the airbag away from my face when I was hit again from behind. It's weird how you have those things flashing through your mind in moments like that. My first thought was that I wasn't going to make it home to see Jim before he moves to Virginia, and my second was that my roommates would have to find another way to get to work.

As soon as the car came to a complete stop the second time I looked up and saw oncoming traffic heading right towards me and I jumped out of the car (the door wouldn't shut anymore, but would only open just enough for me to get out) and ran to the side of the road. At that point I turned around and looked at what USED to be my car, and then the adrenalin rush totally hit me and I started shaking and crying my eyes out. This really nice lady came up and put her arms around me, so I cried on her shoulder for at least five minutes. She just kept saying over and over that it was going to be OK, and it wasn't my fault! My car had very obviously gotten the worst of everything so everyone came rushing over to make sure I was OK. While we were standing there a few more vehicles joined the party, so we ended up having a six car pileup. This one guy who had just pulled over to "help" started yelling at one of the guys involved in the crash for tailgating, and then after that he remembered to ask if I was OK before he went back to spouting about the other guy. After yelling and shouting for a few minutes about how he was going to tell the police that it was that guys fault, he gave us his business card so the police could call him if they had any questions and then he left...Hallelujah! Everyone heaved a sigh of relief when he left. Except for him everyone was really nice and helpful and all.

After I managed to calm down some, I went back and dug my cell phone out of the car, and called Mom and managed to very calmly tell her what had happened stressing the fact that I was OK, and there were really nice people with me. I had her call Matthew and have him call me and tell me what in the world I was supposed to do. While I was talking to him, the paramedics arrived and made me get off the phone, so that they could talk to me. Matthew gave me the inside info on how to get rid of them just before I hung up =). They made me go to the ambulance and have my blood pressure taken, and then I signed their form, and they kicked me out of their nice warm ambulance back into the freezing cold. No one was seriously hurt, so we ended up not needing the ambulance. One girl they told she would probably need stitches in her lip, but I think that was the worst of it.

After that they pretty much left me standing in the freezing cold for about an hour. At first all the snow was melting when it hit my head, but then it started freezing =P. I made some phone calls to arrange for a ride, and then I went through my car and gathered up anything I ever wanted to see again. I think I'm a little too logical... when I tried to shut the car off and get the key out of the ignition it was stuck, but I had enough of my mind left to think to take the other keys off the ring. How weird is that?!?!

I managed to get a hold of my dean from the school, so I had a ride on the way, but then I was just stuck standing there...and standing there...and standing there...and so on. When the police had arrived they started filling out all the reports for the people closest to them. I happened to be the furthest one away. And with both windows on the drivers side and the back windshield shattered there wasn't much point in sitting in the car. Plus it was still in the road and I wasn't feeling particularly safe anywhere near it. So I paced up and down the side of the road trying to stay warm for quite some time. Once this tow truck pulled up and this guy was going to load my car, but the policeman told him that he was supposed to take a different one instead. The driver of that tow truck was a big, fat, gross guy that scared me to death. He kept telling me to go climb into his warm truck. I decided I would rather have frostbite or hypothermia or whatever else I might get, than go anywhere near that creep! I was SOOO happy when the policeman told him to take a different car.

By the time they finally got around to filling out my reports the policeman came over to ask me some questions, but when he saw that I was shaking really badly from the cold he told me to go get into his car. So I went and sat in his car while he filled out the reports. After about two minutes in there my hair started to melt, so I had a ton of water dripping down my face, and neck. Kinda gross, but at least it was warmer! I sat in the car for the next forty-ish minutes while he did his stuff, and answered my questions. He told me that technically everyone involved was at fault for driving too fast for conditions, but he wasn't writing any tickets because it was sheer ice. Somehow while he was doing the reports he managed to lose my drivers license. He searched his car about ten times for it, but he never found it. He said that if he finds it he'll call me and mail it, but I have a feeling that it got lost in the middle of the road.

After we got everything at the scene taken care of he drove me to a nearby gas station and Sue, my dean picked me up there. We went in and used the bathroom while we were there, and I looked in the mirror and saw a big red mark on my neck, blood all over my left ear, and water still dripping down my face. Not a very pretty sight, but I was still alive, so I didn't much care. Both the policeman and one of the paramedics told me that I should at the least be needing ambulance service, if not dead, so I was not terribly concerned about how I looked. I did clean up some before we left. We finally made it back to the school much to the surprise of my roommates, and others who knew that I was supposed to be at home already.

So, you might be wondering what injuries I do have from all this?? Well, during the first crash my airbag protected me from I think pretty much everything, except that the dashboard moved up against my knee. With the second crash I got some whiplash, a seat belt burn/scratch on my neck, bruises from my lap belt on my hip and across my stomach, and somewhere in there I managed to jam my left hand thumb, bruise the back of my other hand pretty badly, and get a lot of little cuts from the shattered windows (hence the blood all over my left ear...it was a really little cut too- two actually). So currently my only mark visible to the world is the one on my neck. But EVERYONE notices it. So far I've only had one accusation of having a boyfriend though... It looks absolutely nothing like what someone would get from a boyfriend. But news travelled really quickly throughout the school, so almost everyone here knows about it. Sam was on a road trip with some of the other girls, and one of the girls with her, her boyfriend was at the same supper table as me, so he called them to warn them to be really careful, because of my accident. So by the time they made it back here Sam already knew all about it. My neck muscles hurt really badly all day Saturday and Sunday, but I can turn my head most of the way again. I have one muscle that hurts still, and that's more than enough for me!

My one regret now is that I didn't get a picture of my car. I really wish that I could show y'all what it looks like, but unless you want to drive out to the lot that it's at in Marshall you won't be able to. Although, I'm still working on what's happening with the car, and it might end up getting towed to a junk place in Jackson, in which case I might be able to get a picture. We'll see. I'm trying to find the place that will give me the most money for it, since I probably won't get anything from the insurance company for it.

So that was one day, but it took me so long to write all that, so I'm going to spare you from the details of the other days. Besides, I have to study for a test. Have a good week!