I was wearing my seatbelt, of course, and my airbags did exactly what they were supposed to do. I'd always kind of wondered if they would.

The only moment of panic came when I realized my driver door wouldn't open, and the passenger side was too close to the fence for me to open. The car behind me also stopped, and they helped me open the rear passenger door so I could climb out. I even was clear-headed enough to remember to grab my purse and phone.

After an hour of exchanging contact info with the other driver, and telling our accounts to the police, the officer gave me a ride the last 1/2 mile to work.

I was still a little shook up, and hyper-vigilant for any physical problems. I felt completely fine, but I was testing everything I could think of. Back? Neck? Arms? Leg? Oh shit, leg! No, that's just from where I scraped it climbing out of my car.

What day is it? What's my parents' names? Can I read this small-print list of ingredients? One of the ingredients was "Bowrn Sugar" and I almost freaked out. I had to read it three times to convince myself that no, my brain was just fine. Whoever proofread that label needs a talking-to, but I'm OK.

I'm still OK. I was very lucky. My little plastic car is apparently good at soaking damage. He took off my side mirror and the door handle, as well as the bumper and the piece right above the front wheel. But, I walked away almost completely healthy. My only injury was self-inflicted, after the actual crash.
***
After work, Yon picked me up. I then spent 45 minutes on the phone, trying to find my car. Apparently, the Saturn dealership right down the street from my apartment that I had asked them to send my car to doesn't do body work. They sent my car somewhere else. Somewhere Else had no clue. Why don't you try over here? Or you could maybe call the tow truck company again? Are you sure this accident was today?

Finally, it turned out my car was right where Saturn said it would be. It didn't get processed correctly, because they had no keys for it.

(I had left the keys in the ignition. Not for any particularly clever reason, of course. With one thing and another, I just completely forgot about them. The firemen had to break my window to turn off the ignition, but then they gave the keys to me, and told me to make sure to give them to the tow truck driver. I did not do this.)

I forgot to collect my important stuff out of my car when I dropped off the key, so I had to go back 40 minutes later. Apparently, keys really are an intrinsic part of their process, because the receptionist already had an estimate for me. She quoted me $270, which seems like complete crazy-talk. I was all predicting maybe the credit card wouldn't whimper too much if I had to pay a thousand. It is good to drive a plastic car. Or, maybe that was just the estimate for the towing, and the actual work is still to come. She said she'll call in few days, when the car is ready.


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