I Feel Like I've Been Hit By A Bus

Now that I have a real 8am-5pm job, I find it difficult to take vacations, so this past long weekend was long-awaited in BertVille. I had been planning a surprise for Bryan for some time. I booked the hotel reservations three months ago.

The morning was still foggy and cold with few people around. We had gotten a very early start in anticipation of our relaxing roadtrip vacation. It is a lesson I keep relearning... things do not always turn out as we plan them. Less than three miles from home, one stoplight before the freeway, an airport van full of people (you might say a bus) slammed into us at top speed while we were stopped at a stoplight. He never hit his brakes and admitted to Bryan, "I never even saw you!" The impact bashed us into the car in front of ours, sent Bryan's orange mocha careening into the windshield where it exploded all over us, wrenched our backs and necks, and generally scared the living hell out of us. We walk away, relatively unharmed (x-ray results still pending). I don't think my car, however, is going to make it (insurance results still pending).


Running on adrenaline and still in shock, I made the executive decision that we were still going to go, damnit, and have some f-ing fun and relaxation this weekend. We rented a car and the airport and we were off. It wasn't as I had pictured. No method to plug in my iPod, so no cool tunes. A slowly stiffening neck. A sinking feeling that, with our wedding three months away and our finances maxed, we were going to have to buy a new (to us) car. Not the happy-go-lucky time I'd been imaging for the past months.

We did manage to find some fun things to do, if not all that I had so meticulously planned.


We hiked along the beach, taking in the coastline and enjoying the brisk, windy weather.

Our hotel was excellent. We had a real wood-burning fireplace in front of which to sit and be grateful that we still have one another.

It was not as planned, but it created in me a desire to think about the things in my life that matter. I've been running fast and taking things for granted... so busy making to-do lists that I forgot to pay attention to right now. Once this is all ironed out between insurance, doctors, and mechanics, I want to spend more time appreciating. In fact, I'd like to start now. No need to wait for the details to get settled. It's time to begin noticing again.