Crash Into Reality

I had quite the scare yesterday. My ex-husband called to tell me that our son was in a car accident. Actually, to quote him scaring the hell out of me at work, he said: "You better buy a lottery ticket because YOUR son just got in a rollover accident and walked away." First, I love how he is MY son because he got in a car accident! But foremost - OH MY GOD. Can you say scare the freaking crap out of me? I didn't stop shaking til this morning. I cried and cried thinking of the WHAT IFs. Thankfully he is fine, the boy who was driving is fine, the truck isn't totalled and my son (who gets his license in 3 months) said "Mom, I ALWAYS wear my seatbelt." But what a slap of reality to realize that your kids are growing up and these things can and do happen. I have too many friends who have lost children to accidents. I have always said that we have been SO lucky that none of our kids have had any major accidents, sicknesses, diseases, anything! They've been so lucky - WE'VE been so lucky. This was a wake-up call. When my boys fight and beat on each other and name call, I want to rip my hair out and KILL them both....I think from now on I'm just going to enjoy the noise instead. The alternative is not an option I want to think about.

Have a great weekend everyone and hug your loved ones!

Grace Under Pressure

Have you ever had to deal with an insurance company? This past Monday a very nice lady rammed into my car. Apparently she changed her mind at the last minute and decided to take a different road. Unfortunately I was already on that road. So her very large Toyota Sequoia ran into my very small (and very new) Nissan Sentra. Now don't get me wrong I HATE my Nissan. I got it about 6 months ago and have had nothing but problems with IT and the dealership. (That's a whole separate story). But still, I liked it better when it wasn't dinged up with a Sequoia's footprint all along the side of it. And I was kind of partial to my driver's side mirror. All one color was working for me as well. But hey, change is good, right?

Needless to say, I was a good sport, I was pleasant and I didn't cuss, yell or scream at her. We had the police come, she was issued a ticket, I got a police report number and we exchanged information. I even spoke to her insurance agent. Being the responsible person that I am (ahem) I took it to the body shop the very next day and got an estimate AND made an appointment for repair. Apparently my planning ahead is the wrong thing to do because American Family won't authorize my repair until they speak to the woman who hit me. They want to get her side of the story and establish fault. They also need a copy of the police report. Gee, I don't know, you could CALL the police department to obtain one! But, no, AM FAM advised ME to obtain one and they would reimburse me. They also said I could go ahead and proceed with my repair and, you guessed it, they would reimburse me for my deductible. Is there a reason that I am doing all the work here when their insured HIT me? AARGH!

Good thing my boss took us out to lunch today and it included margaritas...I think I'll just pretend it's five o'clock somewhere and deal with this next week. Adios!