crash, boom

I know I don’t normally post on Mondays, but I had one intense, humdinger of a week, folks. A week where nothing went as planned. Which happens sometimes. I get that. I’m good at rolling with the punches. But I’ve been rolling so much I’m dizzy now. I need it to stop.

It started with Tuesday, the day we were supposed to close on our house. My husband took off the rest of the week so we could clean and paint. We packed up our two cars and journeyed almost 2 hours through the 100+ degree heat only to find out that the bank didn’t have their paperwork together (the house is a foreclosure so the seller is a bank). It would be another day or two.

The next day (which happened to be my birthday), we got up and waited around so we’d be ready to jump in the car for the hour and a half drive to closing. Nope, not that day. But we got a time scheduled for Friday. Okay. Later than we thought, but what can ya do?

Except on Friday, the bank still didn’t have the appropriate paperwork. So now our closing is scheduled for Wednesday. I’m cautiously hopeful it will actually happen. At this point, I just hope we close before our lease is up at the end of August.

And if that were the only thing about this past week that went awry, it would have been annoying but not ridiculous. But oh no, ladies and gents, it keeps going. (Because clearly my life will never be ordinary.)

After packing a few boxes on Saturday evening, my husband and I headed out on what we thought would be an ordinary trip to Lowe’s for more packing tape. We got the tape, stopped at Krispy Kreme (his idea, not mine – when that “Hot and Now” sign goes on, his brain no longer functions normally), and continued on our way home.

We were stopped at a red light when a car behind us slammed into Luna (my dear car) with a screech and a dull thud. It was drizzly and dark. I guess the driver underestimated the time it would take to stop.

It’s funny the things you think when your body is being tossed around. I noticed the way my hair swished around my face. I noticed how heavy my left earring felt as it swung wildly. I noticed how slamming into the headrest made my whole head throb.

Once the motion had stopped, I checked my ear for damage and looked at my husband. I nodded when he asked if I was okay. I checked the rest of my body for injuries. I wiggled my toes just to make sure I could (when you have a pre-existing back condition, it becomes your standard response to back pain). I noticed how my hands were trembling a little. Adrenaline. But in spite of it, I felt surprisingly calm. Not wired. Not scared. But then, I’m usually calm in a crisis. I don’t know why.

My husband and I are okay. My head was turned to the left at the time so the right side of my neck is extra sore. (Did you know you use your neck when you sneeze? I do! Ouch.) But I’m confident I’ll mend in a few more days. We’re okay. Luna is not. She did her job and absorbed the brunt of the hit but she’ll need a new bumper. Again. (The DC area has not been kind to her.)

It could have been worse. A lot worse. And unlike the last time I was rear-ended, this guy wasn’t armed. (I know, right? It’s a weird thing to be thankful for, but man am I thankful.) He was insured. And apologetic.

It’s been the kind of week that makes me wonder what this next week will be like. Better? Worse? It’s hard to tell. Things can change quickly. But if there’s one thing I’ve realized over this past year, it’s that humans are resilient. Bad things happen. Terrible things happen. We mourn. We adjust. We heal. And then we keep going. Because we’re human. And if we were to stop living and hide away inside our protective bubbles, we couldn’t really be human anymore.

So we adapt and we press on. And we thank God for heat packs and Ibuprofen.

encounters accidents, car crash, foreclosures, home-buying, life, pain Comments