Accidental Lessons

Ok, sorry for the brief post earlier, did it on my phone while I was waiting at the car shop. Here is the short version of the story:

• I was actually having a great day until I headed home from campus around 12:30.
• It was raining, roads were wet.
• I stopped at a 4-way intersection, then made a left-hand turn.
• This black sports car came around a turn, barreled toward the intersection and went roaring down through. I couldn't get out of the way fast enough, so he caught my driver's side flank.
• I somehow ended up spun around 180 degrees, facing the way I had just come.
• My rear driver's-side door was crushed in and that wheel was at a funky angle.
• The entire front of the other guy's car was smashed in.
• By some miracle of physics, neither of us had a scratch. I bruised my knee on the steering wheel, and my back injury from December was re-aggravated (the muscles still seize up at the slightest shock), but it could have been much, much worse. The cold rainy weather and my near lethal dose of adrenaline were the worst physical stresses. One of the firemen actually left his sweatshirt with me when they left the scene because I was shivering so badly, teeth chattering and everything. Although that was probably just as much nerves as incipient hypothermia.
• Match was at work, and he doesn't get a cell signal in his office, so he couldn't come get me.
• I was unsure of who else to call. This was the worst part. I have made quite a few friends in the few months I've lived here, but no really close friends, and no one I wanted to bother to take time out of their day. I ended up calling my major professor, who is ultra-nice and always helpful.
• The other guy was just a high school kid, and his dad came out and yelled at everyone. That wasn't pleasant, but I understood he was scared that his son had such a close call.
• I got a citation for the accident, since he had the right of way on the road he was on (although I KNOW he had to be speeding, and I had followed the rules for stopping, signalling, looking, and he came around a turn speeding, but he did have the right of way on that road, technically). They told me that if I go to my court date and take documentation that my insurance is covering all costs, they'll dismiss the charge.
• They towed my poor car, we went to fill out paperwork at the shop, and my prof took me home.
• Car will be out of commission for 1.5-2 weeks.
• I realized I left all of my keys on the keyring I gave to the tower, so I had to get an extra from my landlord to get in the door, and can't check my mail.
• The kid's dad took him to the ER to get checked out. He claimed and appeared to be fine at the scene, and his air-bags didn't deploy, so I think this was just a precautionary measure, but still makes me nervous. I probably should have gone, because my back aches pretty badly, but I'm fairly certain it's just over-tense muscles from the jolt.

So that was the incident. I was amazingly composed and stoic until about 5:30, when I had this delayed stress reaction and just broke down. Glad it happened when I was safely alone in my apartment, at least.

So a few relevant observations:

• This happened when I was on my way home for lunch, hungry because I hadn't eaten since 8. This little diversion mean that I ended up not getting home until about 4:30 (appetite gone, needless to say, but I did force at least something down).

• So this was an excellent example of a time when it was good that I have more reserves than I used to, because if it had been back during the times when I was on such a razor-thin edge in terms of stamina and energy, it could have been much worse, both physically and mentally. A strong example to the last time I had an accident, about 4.5 years ago, which occurred around 6 pm when I hadn't eaten anything all day, and had to wait in the freezing rain for TWO HOURS for the police to get there. I was seriously afraid I was going to have a heart attack, I was having such bad palpitations.

• If I wasn't this far in weight restoration/recovery, my bones would be weaker and less cushioned, and I could have been seriously injured. I would have suffered much more in the cold after the accident. I would have had a harder time keeping a calm, clear mind while dealing with the police, irate father, insurance company, etc.

• Finally, yesterday and today were half-days in my exercise challenge, which was probably for the best, because it meant I wasn't so depleted while dealing with all of this. Verdict: driving fail but recovery win.

So, lessons learned, albeit by accident.