Grateful

Oh, kids, I'm just trying so hard to process today's activities right now. It's only 3:30, but Lo Gung and I are relaxing on a couch, surfing the internet, watching relaxing HD nature shows.

Let me back up. First off, if you're family, and this is the first time you're hearing about this, I'm sorry. I really am. I was on the phone with Dad several times this morning and by the time this drama had unfolded, most of you crazy West Coasters were just getting up and I had told the story so many times...I'm just tired. Can you forgive me? Wonder Woman, especially you - I'm sorry if this is the first you're hearing about this.

So, Lo Gung left the house at 7:30, dressed for work "just in case." Today was the office Summer Fun day, and he had a bag full of tennis rackets, balls, shorts and sports shoes. It was raining, but he was hoping that the tennis would still be going on today. He's been looking forward to this day ever since we started work here, over two months ago.

Ten minutes later, I got a phone call from his cell phone. He didn't talk right away, but I could hear a panicked woman's voice in the background saying, "Oh my gosh! Are you OK? I tried to brake, but I just didn't stop...". I heard Lo Gung assure her that he was fine, and inquire after her. She was sounding panicky. He finally noticed that I had picked up and told me that he had been in a head-on collision. Everyone was fine, but the car, unfortunately, probably wouldn't make it. BBJ was still asleep. I told Lo Gung I would be there as soon as I could.

I put in a call to my neighbor, Aunt She-She. May I just take a moment to say how much I LOVE my neighbor, Aunt She-She? And her husband, Uncle Glenn? Poor She-She was still in bed, watching her newest grandson sleep. (Two of She-She and Glenn's grandchildren arrived yesterday to spend a few weeks here.) She-She bundled her grandson up and was here within 5 minutes. (She lives at the top of the driveway, so it's not very far to travel!) I gave her a quick thank you, grabbed my digital camera, and took off.

Ten minutes later, this is what I found.







Lo Gung was EXTREMELY lucky in his placement of his accident! You see, Uncle Glenn works at the airport...and heard the accident happen. He was the first one on the scene, and was very surprised to find Lo Gung in one of the cars! He immediately got to work, re-routing traffic on one side of the accident (can you do that?!), sending them on a detour, while another co-worker told traffic on the other side of the accident to slow down and drive carefully.

So, here's the play by play of the accident. Lo Gung was approaching a turn in the road, going about 25 miles per hour. It was raining this morning, so the roads were slippery. Another car was approaching from the opposite direction, just coming around that turn. As she came around the corner, her back wheels started to slide. The driver was just 16, with a license that was exactly 2 weeks old. She panicked and tried to get out of her tailspin. Whatever she did did NOT work. She did a complete 360 and ended up facing her original direction, only halfway into Lo Gung's lane. The next bit was critical. She stomped on her brakes. Only...she missed. Remember, new driver? Yeah, she stomped on the GAS. Stomped. She wasn't very far from Lo Gung at this point, so she didn't speed up much, but it was enough to total the front end of both cars.

Fast forward to the point where I arrived. Lo Gung, the girl and another airport employee were all standing under a tree to get out of the drizzle, waiting for the police to show up. They waited...and waited...and waited...it took a while. This was a fairly rural road. (Funny thing - all these airport employees? Yeah, they WORK for my landlord. Small world, right?)

After a 45 minute wait, Officer Martinez showed up, and then he called for an ambulence. (Ever notice how the people INVOLVED in an accident are never good judges of whether or not they need medical attention?) The officer saw Lo Gung's wrist and decided that EMTs were in order. (Sorry - these are a bit graphic. Just tryin' to keep it real. That, and his Mama would kill me if she didn't know what her baby's boo-boo looked like!




Those are the result of the airbag deploying. The nurses called them "burns". Think "carpet burn"...but REALLY ouchy.

The ambulence showed up about ten minutes later and the EMTs proceeded to stick neck braces on both Lo Gung and the other girl. I was standing in the background, laughing and taking pictures. I knew he had whiplash, but I always thought those things were for people with possibly broken necks. He had already stood around for AN HOUR waiting for the proper authorities to show up...wouldn't that be pretty much impossible if anything was broken?



Oh, and of course a firetruck came. Not sure why...because, again, if anything was on fire it would have finished burning in the past hour!



Finally, the ambulence took off with Lo Gung and the other girl inside, and I made my own way to the hospital. There..we waited. A long time. I had no idea a hospital could have that many cars parked by 10 am on a Monday morning!!! Seriously. Of course, I took more embarassing pictures of Lo Gung while we waited. (Yes, they wheeled him into the ER on a stretcher. I was so sad I missed that! I was looking for a parking spot on the third floor of the parking garage. Did I mention it was a busy morning at the hospital?)






After the doctors took a few X-ray pictures of their own (maybe they have secret blogs somewhere, too?) and gave Lo Gung a healthy dose of the tetanus shot, we were finally free to go. The poor girl from the accident was in the little curtained area next to our little curtained area, and I could hear her crying almost the whole time. She really felt so bad - she made it so terribly easy to forgive her. It was an accident, she was inexperienced...but seriously, do you know a 16 year old that could come out of a 360 spin 15 feet from another car and NOT get in an accident? She gave me a line that my mother is still laughing about, though. I heard her complain to her mother, still crying, "Oh, Mom! How come I can ace the SATs, but I can't drive a car?!" That struck a chord with my family, for some reason. ;-) I think that was the moment when I really started to understand this girl because I know my own 16 year old sister has MULTIPLE friends who would utter the same line under these circumstances.

We arrived home around 1 pm to gather BBJ up for her nap. She She had already put her own granddaughter down for her nap, and was just packing up to take BBJ back to our house to try to put her down. She She tried so hard to do whatever I would have done. She explained what she had fed BBJ, asking if such and such was alright for her, or if she's allowed to eat such and such. Here's the menu for the day, and you can tell me if you think BBJ had any complaints. (I certainly didn't! My toddler happily played with another woman for half a day while I took care of her daddy. I think it's a miracle that she didn't spend the whole morning crying!)

Breakfast: pancakes with syrup.
Lunch: Ketchup with hot dogs ( Yes, you read that right. They cut the hot dogs up small...and BBJ loved the extra surface area that provided!), Cheetos and apple juice. (BBJ had never had Cheetos before. Is anyone surprised that she LOVED them?!)

I see no problem here, and BBJ certainly wasn't complaining! By the time I got there she had commandeered She She's little doll stroller and was doing laps around the house shouting, "whee!!!!"

After BBJ's nap, we spent the rest of the afternoon picking up Lo Gung's rental car (PT Cruiser anyone?), calling insurance agents, removing forgotten personal effects from our totaled car in the tow yard, washing sheets, cooking dinner...and driving to the airport to pick up my mother and baby sister, here to visit for two weeks! Talk about perfect timing.

Lo Gung is doing well. He's very sore, but he's nursing his injuries in a bath full of chamomile, lavender, hibiscus and rose "bath tea" right now. His arm will heal and we're planning on playing a lot of non-motion-heavy Wii games until it does. :-)

Thank you for your prayers today. It means a lot to me. I'm so grateful we have wonderful neighbors who were LITERALLY there for us. I'm grateful my family is here tonight. I'm grateful nobody was more seriously injured. Lo Gung is slightly grateful it was the little red Civic...since it wasn't a very manly car, but I let him drive it anyhow. ;-)