So, I was in a car accident tonight. To answer your some common initial questions:
No, no one was hurt.
No, I wasn't driving.
No, it wasn't our fault.
No, an asteroid did not hit our car.
Yes, our car was a Buick.
Yes, the other car looked like it slammed into a brick wall.
Now that that's out of the way, let me explain what happened since I'm sure you're very interested. My friend Nathan came to visit from Google-land (some call it California) and we had dinner with him at the fantastic Hubbard Street Diner. Mmm. I had some carrot cake that was exactly like my wedding cake, because that's where we ordered the wedding cake from. It was awesome. I digress. After dinner we took Nathan downtown to go to the Bela Fleck concert with his friends John and Jessica (I *think* their names are John and Jessica). We said our goodbyes and were headed back home to Middleton for a quiet evening.
We were headed West on Campus drive and were in the center lane as we approached the intersection of University Bay Drive as can be seen on this google map. We had a green light. A car made a left across traffic and barely made it, which I thought strange seeing that it was dark and rainy, but whatever, it's Madison. After that car barely made it, a blue car started to follow it. I saw it before Mike did (Mike was driving), I yelled and he slammed on the brakes. There was no way to stop in time. The car hit us in the front driver's side hard enough to knock us into the right lane (which was fortunately empty). We got slammed pretty hard, and jarred. Mike's neck will be sore, and the seatbelt caught me hard around my lower stomach, leaving me feeling like I was punched. Parts of the car flew. It sucked.
Then everyone asked if everyone else was ok. For like 20 minutes. That's how I'd summarize it. I didn't ask if anyone else was ok, because I figured everyone else asking was pretty much covering the topic, but many, many people asked me. An ambulance arrived quickly (we were right outside of the hospital) and we told them we were ok. A firetruck arrived (to help how, I wondered) and we told them we were ok. By-standers helped us and the other driver stopped by our car and police were there and a tow-truck driver. It was a happenin' scene. Oh, and it was raining and we all got really wet. I did not have a good time.
I also broke my glasses. Granted, they were already being held together with super glue, but still. Now they're REALLY more broken than they were.
In all, we're fine. Mike was taking the bus to work anyway, and I have a car if we need to go places. We have car insurance even if the other driver didn't (which he didn't). We aren't hurt badly, just sort of jostled. We also have fantastic health insurance should we require medical attention tomorrow. It could be a lot worse.
But we could have also not been in an accident, which would have been better. Because contrary to how cool and sexy car accidents look on tv, they're not, kids. Say no to car accidents.
My left-overs from dinner are ok, though.
~KZB
