Winter Break: Chapter 7 & Conclusion

CHAPTER 7: Everything at the Last Minute
Anchorage - Thursday 1/3

Our flight from Anchorage to Unalakleet was to leave at 2:30pm.

We began our day in Talkeetna, where we spent the night at the Holts' place. After some morning conversation and saying some goodbyes and see-you-laters, Carrie and I loaded up the car one last time to make the final trek, the last leg to Anchorage. It was only a two-hour drive. I was still tired. Carrie drove, and I took pictures.





Our time of departure was about 8:40/9:00am. We got into Anchorage at about 11:00ish. We had a couple of errands to run before making our way to the airport, one of which included a Fred Meyers stop (Fred Meyers is comparable to Wegman's in the northeast, or Meijer in Indiana - they have everything), so I got some fresh produce, since I had SO much room in my bags. I made it work. Anyway, we went to a couple of other places, and our last errand, well, that was very important.

We actually tried to do this very significant thing in Fairbanks, but there were only 2 places to do it, and both places failed us. We had to do it that day, or wait even longer than the 6 years I had already been waiting. We looked in the phone book and got the address of the first place we would try. Neither place was open until noon, so even after driving around the block a couple of times (silly one way streets...), we still ended up sitting in the parking lot for about 10 minutes for the place to open. And then we walked around the building a couple times. haha. That just made me laugh, walking by the same windows twice.

Finally, a young woman unlocked the door and we went inside, and we waited some more. I paid my tab, got all the information I needed, and then we waited some more. And then our lovely piercer got there.

That's right, I got a piercing. Nothing dramatic, just, you know - and really, I think it's quite classy. I like it. Carrie likes it. No one has told me they hate it, so if they do hate it, they aren't telling me, which is nice, although I don't care too much really, because I like it a lot. I waited 6 years, and since after 6 years I still wanted it, I decided that I should just do it. And so I did.


This is me waiting in the very very safe and clean hospital-like room where the deed was to be done. Obviously I am very excited.


She put a clamp on my eyebrow to mark the path of the needle. It didn't really hurt as bad as I thought it was going to. It was alright. The worst part was when she was cleaning it, and she just kept cleaning it and messing with it, and I was like, are you done already??? Because, you know, it was tender.


So this is kind of a bad picture of me. My hair is dirty, so it's up, and my face is washed out by the flash, but there you go. This is my new piercing. This is it. And I like it. So go ahead, comment, tell me what you think. I really do want to know. :) But I'm not taking it out. I like it.

Alright, so, you think the day is over, right? We just get in the car and go to the airport and fly home, no big deal, right?? That's the way it is supposed to be, right??? Of course!!

But you know, of course it would happen that...

When we got back to the car after this significant event in my life (January 3, 2008 around 12:30pm), we decided that I should drive to the airport since I was the only authorized driver, officially, of the rented car. And so I drove, very carefully as always, especially in the city. And this is how it happened.

I was driving down the road towards the airport. In fact, we could see the airport. We were less than a mile away from the airport, the place we so much wanted to get to. I was in the right lane going a fair speed, probably somewhere around 35 or 40. There were no cars around me, no cars in the left lane. I was very alert, we weren't even talking at that point. Carrie was using my phone to try and call someone, so we were both just busy doing our thing. As I approached a street, a car turned in front of me, way way to close in front of me, so I moved into the left lane to give him space. Apparently he had the same thought, to move into the left lane to give me space, either that or he just turned too wide. And then there was nothing I could do.

My car moving too quickly to stop on the icy road - everything seemed to move in slow motion. I thought, this can't be happening right now, really, this is not going to happen. Carrie looked up when I hit the brakes and she screamed (though she doesn't remember, but she also tells me that I yelled out also, but I don't remember doing that, either - odd), and then we collided. The right front corner of my car banged into the side of his car and sort of skidded across it as my car went bumpety bump up onto the median (thank GOD there was a median!!). All four of my tires were on the snowy median (tires that were not, as it were, snow tires), and the other guy's car had the two left wheels propped up on the curb. Fortunately, no tires popped. I think that was mostly due to the snow build up.

We stopped well before moving into the other side of the road. My first words were, "Crap, this is a rental!! What am I going to do??" (among other words). And now I feel bad because Carrie's first words were, "Are you okay??" I was, of course, thanks to the seat belt. I asked her if she was okay, and she was just fine. And then, of course, being the amazing person that she is (especially during that time and the time following), she got out to ask if the other guy was okay. He was also okay, though his dog was really really shaken up, as was I. In fact, I believe I was shaking.


This is the rental car I was driving, where we hit.


This is the other guy's car. You can see where our car ran into his - I'm glad it hit the back door instead of the driver's door, although he still couldn't open his door; he had to crawl out the passenger side.

I didn't know what to do for a moment, though I'd been here before in another Ford Taurus, as it were - this was the 3rd on-the-road car incident I've been in, and the 3rd Ford Taurus that was involved on my end; twice I was driving. This is the last Ford Taurus I will drive, ever. So it wasn't your car luck, C, it was actually the bad luck of the Ford Taurus.

Anyway, I called the rental place for the insurance information, and they told me to call the police, and so I called the police, who frankly took their sweet time in getting to us. But the guy who came was very nice. He listened to our side of the story first, and then to the other guy's (who is really a nice guy, I think - he felt aweful). It was determined that it was not my fault, that the other guy turned in front of me, and this was proven by the close distance between the accident and the intersection. I had to sit in the back of the police car and fill out information, radda radda ra, but in the end, the other guy was sited. Whew. Good thing I was driving! And I was so glad that I was not alone for this!!!

The accident was at 1:05ish. By the time we were released, it was nearing 2:00, well past our 1:30 check-in time. We had until 2:15. I dropped Carrie off with all of our luggage who took it to the Hageland gate to check us both in (fortunately nothing was too heavy). I then went to return the car. I was kind of in a rush, but I was a little nervous, of course, returning a broken car, pieces of which were still on the road and median at the place of the accident. We went through the whole thing of insurance and all that, but because I had wisely purchased the insurance via Enterprise, I was waived of all fees involving car repairs. And since it was the other guy's fault, I was told that they would be going after the other guy and his insurance, and so I was free and clear with Enterprise. This was very good news. With that, I ran off to the other end of the airport (again) to Hageland's gate (that sounds like the name of a bar, or something in a fantasy). I arrived with minutes to spare, greeted by Carrie and the new SpEd teacher at our school, Rita. She is very nice. And I was glad to be going home.

What a day!!!

CONCLUSION
Unalakleet

The rest of my break will be spent working (grading, planning, preparing my classroom), skiing on my cool new skis with my happy-to-see-me dog, and fundraising for the seniors at the Jamboree, which is a 3-day basketball tournament for community teams in the area. Should be kind of fun. :) I am glad to be home, even just to relax in my own apartment, though I definitely have a lot to do. I'm not ready to be back to work yet. I still want to be on break, because it was so good!! But alas, this is life, and life will go on. I need to get my head back in the game here at school.

This was a much needed vacation, and I am grateful to have been able to travel around so much, meet new people, experience new and amazing things (though I could have done without the car accident...). I'm so glad I was able to see so many old friends and family!!! Thanks to everyone, again, for making my vacation so wonderful!! :)