hit by a car

six years ago I was hit by a car.

Life

That was a weird experience. As the years go by my fear from that experience lessens. I have almost kind of forgotten about it. The memory of it feels like a fuzzy dream.

I wrote a blog post about the experience later on that day.  I wasn’t injured at all. I was very very lucky, considering I bounced off of the hood of the car.

I often think of the idea of “story  construction” because of this experience.

After I was taken to the hospital I needed a ride home from the hospital. I can’t remember how it came about that my mom picked me up and why I couldn’t call her myself to ask her. But the next day I was checking my phone messages and she’d left me a message on my phone after she found out that I was hit and in the hospital to tell me she was on her way. She left a message that was not completely hysterical and then something odd happened. She didn’t hang up. She didn’t realize this though. So the rest of her drive to the hospital was her conversation with my step-dad as they drove to the hospital. It was fascinating to listen to. She re-created the whole story in her mind. Reconstructed it into something else. As she imagined what happened her voice became more worried and hysterical.

I think about this a lot when I think about the stories we create everyday about everything.  Usually the story we create has nothing to do with reality.

You’re in the back of a taxi

Writing

When my North Dakotan friend and I got off the train we decided to take a cab into Greenwich Village. We got into the back of the taxi and gripped the seat as the driver tried to impress us with his erratic driving through Manhattan while asking us questions about where we were from. He turned his head to talk to us and in that moment I saw it coming. In the distance I saw the man crossing the street. He was wearing a red shirt and black jeans. He had brown hair and a mustache. He looked into the cab of the taxi the moment before impact. I will never forget that look. It was a look that was mirrored in my face, I am certain. As the cab driver turned back around the man was on the hood of the car, rolling up to meet the windshield. His body bounced off the windshield as the taxi driver screeched to a stop. He told us to stay in the car while he got out to check on the man he had just hit with his car. My friend and I sat in the back of the taxi in shock.

Somebody opened the door and offered to help us out. We looked at each other. “I don’t want to be in this car,” I said. “Neither do I,” replied my friend. So we accepted the offer. We ended up on the sidewalk where a crowd had gathered. The man was lying on the ground, not moving. I didn’t know if he was alive or dead. I heard sirens from an ambulance trying to make its way through the busy city streets. Somebody next to me said, “I’ve lived here all of my life and I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Somehow that gave me a bit of comfort. Even New Yorkers, who have “seen it all” were shocked by somebody getting hit by a car.

The cab driver found us and asked us why we got out of the car and who helped us out. We didn’t see the person who helped us. He left the scene. Because he stole all the cabbie’s money.

18 years later  I would remember that look of horror on that man’s face as I watched the grill of a car drive into me and I bounced off the windshield of a Oldsmobile.

25 things about me.

Life
Queen Marie Antoinette of France, daughter of ...

Image via Wikipedia

I didn’t mention on my blog that I joined Facebook. I did! I am already stalking most of you who read this blog. But if I somehow didn’t track you down and you want to be Facebook friends you can find me here.

My Sister-in-law tagged me on Facebook for this meme. I’ve done a “100 things about me” post a few years ago but that was a few years ago.

Rules: Once you are tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits or goals about yourself. At the end, choose 25 people to tag. You have to tag the person that tagged you.
Note: I will only tag those I know in Facebook and if I do tag you please don’t feel like you have to do this. Only if you want to.

1. I am dying to visit Italy. I am hoping we can go this year.
2. One of my dream jobs is to be a kid lit author. Unfortunately I don’t sit down and write. Kind of need to do that to be an author!
3. I really, really want to learn how to play the banjo.
4. I have the Santa Cruz Beach Harbor cam bookmarked and I check it several times a day. It is my “happy place.”
5. I got through an entire literature degree without taking a single Shakespeare class.
6. Photography is my creative outlet of choice.
7. I will be 40 in 2 months and this kind of freaks me out. I don’t feel 40.
8. I have been happily married for almost 12 years to my soul mate and best friend.
9. I love to knit. I don’t really feel like it is a creative outlet, though, because I just follow directions. I do enjoy doing it though. It keeps me sane.
10. I was hit by a car this year and didn’t get hurt! Well physically anyway. I’m a little hypersensitive when it comes to crossing the street. Regardless, I was VERY lucky.
11. I don’t have children. I am still trying to decide if I want them. Or one.
12. I’m not really a “snow person”
13. I want to be more fit. This is a perpetual goal of mine.
14. I generally like music from all the genres. If it’s a good song I like it.
15. I am slightly obsessed with Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution.
16. My two favorite movies of all time are Vertigo and Rear Window.
17. I am the “Story Lady” at the library. The kids call me “Miss Monica.”
18. I am a lover of picture books because of this. My favorite storytime book is “Bark George” by Jules Feiffer. However, my absolute favorite picture book in the whole wide world is the book “We were tired of living in a house” by Leisel Moak Skorpen. I’m talking the version from the sixties with the awesome pen and ink drawings. I have fond memories of my mom and my older siblings reading it to me. I LOVE that book. I bought myself a used copy of it a few years ago.
19. I grew up in Spokane WA, where I live now.
20. I have become a beer snob.
21. I miss the ocean. I have to see it at least once or twice a year.
22. When I was a kid I was a fast runner. I kicked ass in the 100 and 50 yard dash. I was in a rotary track club and my relay team in my age group was the 4th fastest in the nation.
23. I love poetry and wish I was a poet. I would love to someday write just one poem that someone reads and says “wow. That was brilliant.” Because I love reading poetry like that. It is one of life’s little joys.
24. I hurt my knee slam dancing. I like to say things like, “Yeah, I’ve got an old mosh pit injury” to be funny.
25. My all time favorite song is Baba O’Reilly by the Who.

The last few of them I grabbed off of my list of 100 things because I couldn’t think of anything new. But they still apply.

Good Riddance 2008.

Life
New Years Eve at Borovets, outside hotel "...

Image via Wikipedia

Let’s just face it. 2008 sucked. Big time. And not just for me, it sucked for almost everyone I know. I am so ready to just move on. But first, I thought I would take a look back at the past year. Let’s look at the laundry list of suckage, if you will.

  1. The bad news started in October of 2007, really. With the untimely death of my step-brother. I didn’t really talk about it here in detail and I won’t go into detail now because thinking about it makes me sad. It was really horrible. My aunt died a couple of weeks later when she went in to have surgery. That was also really awful, obviously.
  2. The year started at the end January with “the great snowstorm of winter 2008” (hoo boy, if I knew then what I know now) When we came back from San Jose I was in shock at the amount of snow that was on the ground. I mean, the trees in our backyard were bent in half! At the time, I had never seen anything like it.  (As and aside, I can’t believe I took this picture a week later! It was already melting a week later? sigh.)
  3. In February (actually on my dad’s birthday) I got hit by a car while I was crossing the street on my way to work. Thankfully, I was okay. I was banged up a bit but I was o.k. I have been kind of twitchy regarding cars and crossing streets and parking lots. When I am crossing at a crosswalk I do not cross until the cars have stopped. And when they are slowing down to stop I don’t even trust them. I make eye contact with the driver of the car and stare him down so I know he/she actually sees me crossing the street. In other words, I do not trust cars. Ever.
  4. March was, relatively, uneventful (thank god) but, looking back, I really got tired of snow. I mean, it snowed on the first day of Spring! Stupid Mother Nature. Oh, and I turned 39. The last year of my thirties. which isn’t really a bad thing.
  5. In May I had a REALLY creepy experience with my massage therapist which pisses me off to this day. In fact, I was telling someone about it this morning. The sad thing is that I would really love to see an massage therapist right now because my freaking back is freaking killing because of all of this mother effing show shoveling I’ve been doing but because of the bad experience I had with this moron I’m hesitant.
  6. In June My kneecap popped out of its socket during a hike in the middle of a forest in Idaho. Also, I almost got hit by a car again while crossing an interestion to catch a bus.  Oh, and it fucking snowed. In June.
  7. July included probably one of the worst days of my life. Again, can’t go into any details but it was not pretty.
  8. In October my husband’s cousin passed away. He was not much older than me. We both felt really sad about it. He had his problems but I really liked the guy and felt really bad about his death.
  9. October was also the month of The Sickness. I started getting a sore throat while working at the annual Spokane is Spelling spelling bee. I helped all of the kids get onto the stage and directed them off of the stage. When I think about how sick I got and how many kids I probably infected it makes me hang my head. poor kids. I ended up actually completely losing my voice. It was gone for about a week. I had to actually write notes to people because I literally could not talk. It was really weird.
  10. November probably was the worst month of all. The Friday before Thanksgiving my step-dad had emergency brain surgery to remove a tumor the size of a golf ball from his frontal lobe. We found out he has lung cancer and that it had spread to his brain. I can’t imagine hearing about anything worse than that. The worst news I have ever gotten in my life. That weekend was filled with despair and worry, and then relief when he made it out of surgery o.k.
  11. December? I have one word. Snow. omyfuckinggod the snow. And to think that this all started only two weeks ago. I read in an article that in December alone we have gotten almost 60 inches of snow just this month alone! And you have to realize, that this has only been in the last two weeks! Way back in January I had no idea what a lot of snow is. The past two weeks have been absolutely insane. It’s actually getting kind of frightening. There are roofs collapsing all over town, including one at a supermarket and one at a gym. It’s really not a good situation.

Of course, it hasn’t been all bad. There have been some good things:

  1. I was in the media all over the place this year. Strangely, I didn’t really blog much about it. In January there was an article written about my mom and I regarding her watercolor painting and my photography. My picture was also in the paper to coincide with an aritcle about the Summer Reading Program. I was also in a little “commercial” for local public television that featured the library and how it helped students. And again I was in a commercial for a local television station’s “success by six” program in which I read a little bit of a picture book for a group of preschool kids. It was kind of fun being in the spotlight :). I actually had people come up to me saying, “I saw you on t.v.”
  2. My photos were in a little gallery showing (well, at a coffee house in the middle of nowhere) along with my mom. I actually sold 3 pieces. That was a wonderful ego boost.
  3. We went on some fun trips! We went to San Jose at the end of January, to Wallace Falls in June and Long Beach in March and August.
  4. I’ve been really enjoying learning about the principles of Zen. It has actually helped me get through a lot of rough times this past year.
  5. Obama won! This was such a huge relief. When I think about it I just feel a huge wave of relief roll over me. I know that he is going to be a fantastic president.

So what else is there to say? This has been a challenging year. I’m ready for something less dramatic in the upcoming months. Goodbye 2008!

Hope you all have a happy and safe new year!

My week in bullets

Life
Ella's Supper Club

Ella’s Supper Club, April 2008. Spokane, WA

I’ve had kind of an interesting week. Here are the highlights:

  1. I went to my first massage therapy appointment on Monday. Admittedly, I was extremely nervous about it. I came very close to canceling it. But it turned out to be a good thing. I don’t know why I didn’t start sooner. I definitely need it since my muscles are all clenched up from the accident.
  2. I started the Abs Diet this week. I have no idea if I’ve lost weight because my scale needs new batteries. But I feel good! That’s important, right?
  3. I enjoyed getting caught up on the Mystic Creations Death Faking incident on the Ravelry Forums. Wow. Even in the knitting community there are shysters. How sad.
  4. I enjoyed this little joke played on someone in Twitter. I have no idea who any of these people are but it was entertaining nonetheless.
  5. We bought a Nintendo Wii! This was kind of an adventure. First of all, we searched online and found that you can’t find them anywhere online for sale. Well, I should say anywhere reputable. So we started calling around. The Best Buy on the Northside said (after they hung up on us the first time we called and asked), “the truck was just pulling up and they would be on the floor in an hour. First come first served. And there are already two people here waiting.” So I jumped in the car and drove the half hour to get there. When I got there the ones that were placed on the shelf had already been taken. Someone else who was waiting said that the sales person was in the back to see if there were more. So I waited there, like a Lemming, for him to come back. He finally did, with three of them in his arms. I totally lucked out. I have no idea how else one would find a Wii in this town. We just happened to call when the truck was pulling up. We love it, btw.
  6. An unexpected person friended me on Myspace. I think that is all I will say about that for the time being.
  7. It snowed this week. Quite a lot. I keep thinking that Spring HAS to come, right? I mean, Spring always comes. It’s the way the whole Seasons thing works. This is what is helping me keep my sanity. That Spring will come. It just has to.

This is one of my one-day weekends so I need to go because I have to cram two days of stuff into one day. It’s super fun.

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!