Monday, April 14, 2008

Worst Day Ever...

I have 3 posts at least running around in my head, but none of them are going to get out until I drano the brain-clog that is keeping everything bottlenecked up in there.

I am currently having one of the worst days ever. For Me. I know things could be worse, and I keep telling myself that, but today has truly sucked.

I am in Denver. I came here because my company requires me to take a driver safety test. It's held at a racetrack and we do a lot of obstacle course driving, skid control, etc skills. We rent a vehicle and basically beat the hell out of it in the name of safety. I had heard it's a really fun course, and I have been looking forward to it for a while now.

On the bright side, being in Denver allowed me to meet and have a lovely evening with my friend SUV Mama. We met at a lovely restaurant and had a fantastic meal. Our meeting exceeded all my expectations. Jess is a beautiful, bright woman with a soul that shines from the inside out. We packed as much conversation into 5 hours as we could, and I was sad when it was time to go. I wish her all the best in her move to WA, and hope maybe I can get out there one day and visit with her again...

So the irony begins right there: I have the worst day after the most lovely evening. And the irony only gets more, well, ....Ironic.

Today I had to get up and get to the local speedway here in Denver. I had about a 12 mile drive in morning traffic. I left my hotel at 7:15, even allowing myself a 3-minute pilgrimmage to Starbucks. I was making fine time, even through rush hour. My lovely GPS, which I have come to rely on heavily with my new travel schedule, informed me that I needed to make a left turn at the upcoming intersection. I was in stop and go traffic and needed to merge from a stopped position into the turn lane, which was a continuous lane that went on and on. I noticed a few people using this lane to zip up to the traffic light and turn, so I was very careful about finding a safe time to merge. I saw an opening, checked, checked again, and pulled out. I had not even gotten halfway into the lane when WHAM!!, I was hit by an suv driving very fast. I had not seen her. AT ALL. Both times I checked! I was not preoccupied. I was not talking on the phone or sipping my coffee or trying to multitask in any way. The woman hit my front left bumper of my (rental) car, and tore it off completely. I stopped and she stopped, and a witness stopped as well, and told me the woman was "flying" and "came out of nowhere."

The police showed up, took our statements and the witness statement, and in the end I was cited with improper merging or some such charge. $86 fine, could have been worse. 1 mark on my driving record. The officer told me that she would have loved to have cited the woman as well because she was in violation by using the turn lane as a driving lane, but the fact was that she had the lane and I merged into her, and the fact that she was speeding could not be proved. So apparently the accident would not have happened had I not merged. The officer also told me that if I appealed in court, the charges would likely be dropped. But it would cost me more to fly to Denver and back to appeal than the $86 fine. So I'll just suck it up and hope my insurance doesn't go up too much.

It just pisses me off. My driving record is spotless. I have had one speeding ticket in my life, and that was when I was 18. Gaaah!

So there I was with no vehicle, needing to get to the speedway, and couldn't get another rental car because of my citation. So the husband of the woman that hit me offered me a ride to the speedway (male stranger #1 that I rode with that day, also a new one on me!). He was very kind and nonchalant about the accident, and I felt at ease with him. He even carried my luggage upstairs at the speedway, nice guy, right? I got to the speedway and they wouldn't let me into the class because I had missed 2 hours of lecture and were getting ready to do track exercises. So I was screwed. I called a cab and started walking to the entrance of the speedway to wait, which is where male stranger #2 (an employee of the track who had helped me find my classroom) offered me a lift to the front gate, which I took because I had about a mile and a half to go lugging a suitcase and a heavy computer bag. Then male stranger #3 showed up in his yellow taxi (Bob, nice guy), and I got a $110 ride to the airport (ack!). Which is where I am now praying I can get on an overbooked flight standby at 3:45pm but most likely will be taking my originally scheduled 8:55pm flight which gets in around midnight.

So basically I made a round-trip flight to Denver to stay in a hotel, wreck a car, and spend my entire day in an airport.

...Ahhh, but I got to meet Jess. So it was sooo worth it! =)

JeepMan is quite unhappy with me - he is a "worst-case scenario" kind of guy so he is worried that I am going to lose my job and/or that we will get sued for all we are worth by the people I hit. Ok, For 1), tons of field people with this company get in accidents every year. I am on the road 80% of the time for my job, so my accident risk is waaay up. If they fired everyone who had an accident they would have a lot of problems keeping staff. For 2), I don't think those people are going to sue us. It's just a feeling I have (I accidentally-on-purpose left out the part about strange man #1's giving me a ride to the speedway - no need for JM to have a stroke on the spot...). For 3, even if they did sue "us" I am insured through my company. So I think they would be suing the company, not me personally.

Anyhow, it sucks. I know. And I feel like crap about it. But it's done. It's over with. And all I can do at this point is continue on living my life and use the lesson I learned today.

And pray like hell that I can get out of Denver. Which is beautiful by the way....another positive for the day.

6 comments:

Jess said...

OMFG.

This SUCKS. I'm SO sorry this was such a crappy day.

I wish you would have called, I would have picked you up. The girls and I are always up for road trips to the airport!!! Heck, I've already been there once today!!

I'm mostly pissed it had to be an SUV bitch that hit you. Damn SUV drivers!!!

*&^%$#@*$($

I'm VERY happy you were not hurt!!!!!

BLAHHHH!!!!

Tiff said...

That's terrible! You weren't hurt were you?

I don't think I'd worry too much about losing your job. As you say, with as much driving as you are expected to do accidents are more likely to happen.

Hope today is better!

Mom In Scrubs said...

No, I wasn't hurt, sis. Thanks for thinking of me though! I really didn't feel any impact as she just peeled my front bumper off in one flimsy plastic piece. She wasn't hurt either.

Thanks Jess! I thought about calling you, but then the nice strange man rode to my rescue, so hey. You're sweet to offer, though!!

Travis Erwin said...

Sheesh! What a dayn taht is. But at least you weere not injured.

Monnik said...

Oh my gosh... First of all, I'm SOOOO glad you're ok. Accidents suck.

But I have to ask... am I the ONLY one giggling about the fact that you got into an accident on the way to a driver safety test? ha! That's funny stuff - stranger than fiction and all that...

Hope you made it home ok and that the rest of the week is better for you.

Debbielou said...

Oh Blimey - sorry to hear that you had a real bum of a day, but glad that you are ok.

Hope the week gets a lot better xx