Truly Blessed

I'm sitting here watching the steam rise up to my bathroom ceiling as I lay back on my, now deflated spa pillow that I purchased from my local dollar store.  I know you get what you pay for, but I think that the deflation came as a result of my fiance' inadvertently squished it with his dead weight as he took a nap on the couch.  Needless to say, it is still serving it's purpose by keeping my hair from laying up against the "naked" bathtub.  Since it only cost a buck, I'm gonna replace it and while I'm at it, I'm going to purchase my mom one too, because when I showed her this one, she said she always wanted something like that.  It's such a small price to pay for comfort and with it only costing a buck, I might as well get two. 

The steam is steady rising and on occasion, I'm raising a wine glass full of frozen pina colada drink to my lips.  I know it's not yet noon, but sometimes I want to go into chill mode early in my day.  There's a candle in the far left corner of my tub adding a glowing ambiance to my mid-day soak.  The scent is Glade's Relaxing Moments, Cool Serenity.  I just finished a rush job for a client who needed an article on the top three European cruise destinations.  I woke up this morning about 7:00 a.m. to get started.  I had less than four hours to research and write the article, plus proof it.  I had fourteen minutes to spare as I clicked on the submit button.  After finishing the article, I felt like I needed my own little get-a-way and decided to take a mid-day soak amid Vaseline Intensive Care's moisturizing bath beads.  The blue water reminded me of an oceanic scene. 

As I drifted in and out of sleep, I reflected on the previous day's events.  My day started off with me going to the jeweler's to see about them exchanging my peeling ring.  At first it seemed as if I was going to have to get irate, but perhaps the clerk had seen something in my eyes and in her foreign language, explained to the supervisor on the other end of the phone what the problem was.  The first suggestion the supervisor gave was for them to take the ring back to be repaired.  I looked at the clerk incredulously and asked her what was the point of their exchange policy, if I had to go through all of this.  After hanging up with the supervisor, before the clerk could get a word out, the phone rang again.  God must have been looking out for me, or perhaps the clerk, because she informed me that the supervisor said that I could choose another ring.  While waiting for her to write up the paper work, something told me to look at my phone which had a missed call and a voice mail.  Before I could check the voice mail, the phone was ringing again.  It was the school.  Drats, what now?  The person on the other end of the phone wasn't a male, so that put me at ease.  It was the school nurse informing me that Fourteen Year Old had sprang his ankle and couldn't walk on his own.  She said that he had requested that she call me so that I could come pick him up.  Well, at least he wasn't in trouble this time, so I was looking forward to going to collect him.

Laying here soaking, my mind is totally at ease.  Fourteen Year Old is tucked securely in his bed and I must say that his immobility is a breath of fresh air.  Just knowing that he is mere feet away from me, not able to get into mischief at school, takes a gigantic weight off of me, but there's a more serious reason why my mind is at ease at this moment.  Yesterday was a day of events that could have made today a total nightmare, instead of one where I am able to relax while the rest of the world may be upside down.  After leaving Walmart's yesterday, with my mom in tow, I was involved in a four vehicle collision, with me being in the front vehicle.  Me and my mom were on our way to Taco Bell, and I guess Devine Intervention wouldn't allow us to purchase any of the mystery meat.  My family had already had my home-made, world famous tacos days earlier, so I wasn't particularly trying to eat tacos again, but Mommy Dearest wanted to grab something quick to take home to her hubby.

Back to the four vehicle collision.  We were waiting for a red light to turn green and there was pick-up truck in front of us.  After the light turned green, the pick-up didn't move and neither did I.  I consider myself an excellent driver and the fact that I didn't move just because the light turned green proves it.  The truck in front of me must have stalled because it was several minutes before it took off, and just as it took off and I was about to follow, the SUV behind me hit me.  I put my vehicle into park and got out and went to talk to the driver.  There were two more SUVs behind her and they were all touching each other.  I suggested we all pull over to the bank parking lot and so the last vehicle's driver went first and everyone else followed suit with me arriving last.  We all got out and surveyed the damage.  I was the only vehicle that did not acquire any damage.  The vehicle that hit mines had a crunched license plate in the front, but not too much damage in the back.  I saw a glimpse of the other vehicles, but was not too concerned because they had their own issues and mine was clearly with the person immediately behind me. 

After seeing that I had no damage, and knowing that the police were on the way, I excused myself from the premises because, and I'm not too proud of this, but, I did not have any insurance.  The vehicle's driver was relieved that I didn't have any damage and agreed that there wasn't a reason for me to hang around.  I made my great escape down some unfamiliar side streets and back into my own neighborhood within a matter of fifteen minutes.  I know this sounds like something out of a movie and believe me, I've never done anything like this in my life, but it was quite an adventure.  My mom, who is my riding buddy kept saying that she didn't see where I did anything wrong, but aren't moms supposed to defend their children?  I knew that I should have stayed, but given the fact that I didn't have any insurance and that I didn't cause the accident, I thought everything would be alright. 

We arrived in front of my house and discussed what had just happened.  Oddly enough, I wasn't nervous or anything.  We kept saying that I didn't do anything wrong, except leave.  As we sat there, a vehicle turned the corner and guess who it was?  You guessed right, it was the police.  They had found me.  Before they parked, I was out of my vehicle and on my way into my house to retrieve my lottery tickets.  Is that crazy or what?  I came back out and an officer was shining his flashlight on my vehicle.  He greeted me with a hello and I responded back with a, heeeyyy.  It was the most surreal thing I had ever experienced; it felt like a dream.  He asked me was I the driver of the vehicle and I said yes, then he asked for my identification and while I was trying to find it in my purse, he asked me what happened tonight?  I was like, "You mean, what just happened about thirty minutes ago?" and he said, yes.  I calmly told him exactly what happened, from start to finish.  He went over to my mom's side of the vehicle and asked who she was and if anybody was hurt.  We told him we were fine and that the vehicle did not obtain any damage from the collision.  He then explained that since the accident happened somewhere else, the police from that district were on their way over.  He then told me to get back into my truck so that I could stay warm. 

The other district's officers arrived and they were just as friendly as the first two.  They asked me what happened and how many vehicles were involved and wanted to confirm what the other drivers had said.  The last vehicle's driver had lied and said that someone hit him, but the other drivers said that that was not the case.  They went to write down all of my information for future references and then alerted me that although I didn't cause the accident or have any damage, next time I should stay at the scene.  The initial report had come in that there were a certain number of vehicles involved and so they had to come find me.  I know exactly who gave them my information.  It was the passenger of the vehicle who hit me from behind.  I saw him eyeballing my license plates as I was leaving.  Instead of being grateful that their insurance didn't have to pay for any damages, he ratted me out.  Needless to say, this morning after taking my soak, I will be ordering insurance from my former insurance company.  Knowing that the situation could have been far worse, I'm not about to chance not having insurance for another day.  I don't know how long I'll be able to afford it, seeing as that's the reason I didn't have it in the first place, but for the next thirty days I'm covered.  Well until next time..."Live your life by loving yourself."