So to start back in the beginning, I need to go back to when I first got back to America from Italy in April. My season was over, and the first thing I wanted to do was come back and get started on buying a house. I flew home to stay with my parents while I talked to banks and tried to figure out how to make my dream a reality. WELL.... one day, before I was going to meet my mom for lunch I was shopping at TJMaxx. And if you know me at all, you know that I LOVE TJMaxx. Well, to be fair, I love TJMaxx, Marshalls and Ross, but thats not the point of this story. So as I was digging through all the good stuff, I realized that I was about to be late to meet my mom. So I put away what I had in my cart, and decided I'd put a pin in that trip and come back later. I was driving down the road and turned on a street that would eventually lead me to my moms office, when BAM!!!!!
A girl pulled out of a restaurant and slammed into the side of my car :( This was my first real accident and I was a little shaken. My horn was going off, both airbags deployed, and smoke was getting into my car.... I was fine, but I guess from the impact I hit the window with my hand and didnt realize until later that it was quite swollen. I grabbed my phone from the floor board and tried to call my mom, but as soon as someone picked up, I just crying and blabbing about what just happened. Turns out, it wasn't my mom. And again, if you know me, you know I am first, an ugly crier... and second, if I try to talk while I'm crying, you won't understand a word I say. And seeing as this accident wasn't really that bad, it made it worse with my reaction. Anyway, I was now out of the car and staring at the 16 year old girl that was driving her dads minivan that rammed into the side of me. She had a bloody nose from the airbag and was hysterical. So I tried to compose myself, as people that had seen the accident came to see if I was OK. I kept saying I was fine, but apparently I was holding my left hand straight up in the air like a surgeon who just washed his hands and didnt want them getting dirty. When the medic saw it, she said, "your hands broken, you're going to have to go to the hospital". Then my hand really started to hurt. I couldnt move it, and I felt like my finger was the size of a large banana. (I say large, because my fingers are normally the size of normal sized bananas).
Fast forwarding a bit, my mom and dad eventually got there, everything was sorted out, but my beloved 96 Cam Cam had died. :( I had her for about 6 years, and she was the perfect car to get me from point A to point B only 4 months out of the year while the other 8 months she rested and didnt worry her mother when there was hurricanes, hail, or tree branches. She truly served her purpose, and it was sad saying goodbye.
You see since I play overseas, I never wanted to buy a new car that I would only get to drive for a few months, leave, and then when I came home, she was already last years model. Plus who wants to pay insurance on a car that you're not even driving?!??!? So now I needed to find a new, used, more reliable car. Not the thing I wanted to worry about while my main priority this summer was buying a house.
Now rewind it back a little.... My mom and I went to the hospital to get my hand looked at. At this point I still hadn't brought it down, and couldnt move it. They did a couple x-rays and then had me wait, while I iced it and took some medicine for the pain. Finally the doctor came in and told me that I had messed some ligaments up in my pinky, but nothing was broken. Fortunately, the ligaments in my pinky have been messed up for years after being dislocated back in high school, and thats not what had gotten hurt in the accident. And amazingly as soon as he said nothing was broken, my hand felt fine, and I was ready to get back to pushing my shopping cart around TJMaxx! The mind is a powerful thing!
Luckily, my father is somewhat in the "car biz" so he was able to help me find another car to replace Cam Cam. It was a bit of an upgrade for me, going from a '96 to an '02. I almost thought the inside would have the new car smell (It didn't). So only a couple of weeks after my accident I brought home my brand new, used '02 Honda, Rhonda.
