Mind: Alive, Kicking, and Thankful

This is normally when I would apologize for the lack of posting. Where the holidays and travel and work all got in the way, and I try to make up for lost time. But not this time, unfortunately. This time things are a little different.

You see...last Saturday, on 12/27/08, my husband and I were in a horrible car crash. We were on our way back home from visiting his family in Humboldt county, through the windy, two-lane mountain roads in the rain, when a car spun out in the oncoming lane and into ours. We had nowhere to go...we collided head-on with the side of his car.

Everyone miraculously survived. My husband and the other driver were able to walk away (though we found out later the other driver was much worse off than he let on), but I was trapped in the car. I'd been pushed off my seat and under the dashboard, with my knees up against my chest. They had to cut me out of the car, which was one of the longest and scariest hours of my life.

We got taken in an ambulance to a nearby hospital, where my husband's folks met us. Once again, miraculously, my husband and I had neither broken bones nor internal injuries. Just a lot of serious aches, pains, and nasty, nasty bruises. I'm still walking with a cane for balance.

Up until two days ago, we were staying with his folks as we healed up (who were just wonderful to us). They drove us back to the Bay Area on New Year's Eve, where my parents and brother has driven up from SoCal to be with us. We had one hell of a little party, my husband's family and mine, though husband and I were pretty much confined to chairs. I hate the reason it happened, but it was great to have all our parents together again. It's been the first time since we were married 6 years ago.

So, happy ending, in some respects. Like I mentioned, I'm still moving really slowly, still using a cane for balance, and still in a bit of pain. I'm seeing my doctor today to get checked out. A lot of the bruising is fading, though I still look like I was beat up by barbarians. Obviously, my writing skills have also taken a bit of a hit, but like walking, I'm hoping to be back in full steam with that all well soon.

So, kids, the moral of this story: ALWAYS WEAR YOUR SEATBELT. Seriously. It saved my life, and my husband's. I'm gonna be the poster child for seatbelts from now on.

I hope everyone out there had a lovely and safe holiday. I'll be slowly catching up on everyone's blog posts, and hopefully next time I'll have something crafty to share...my Xmas gift to my father.

If you're curious, this is what our car looked like after the crash (I chose to post it small so folks wouldn't have a big, ugly metal wreck staring at them in their readers):


This used to be our Ford Focus. The doors were cut off and thrown inside by the rescue workers. Same for the seats on top of the car. The rest...pure collision, baby. Like I said...

...a miracle.