Car Sadness
I’m frequently criticized for a disorder known as Compulsive Neatness (I have an aversion to sand, layers of dust, and eyebrows that aren’t finely pointed arches.) So, when my car got side swiped by a giant Partridge-style school bus on it’s way to Burning Man yesterday, my world was traumatized in more ways than one.
The Story: I’m driving down a narrow street and a giant painted school bus is coming at me. I can’t back up without hitting traffic, so I stop and hit the horn. The bus keeps coming at me like a bad dream until IT HITS MY CAR! A guy who looks about 25 with no shirt on comes out and shows me something that looks like a car insurance expiration notice. OK, so he’s kind of cute in a Burning Man kind of way (but that’s no excuse…). I’m in a trauma state, so I can’t be entirely responsible for what passes through the mind. That is until my Burning Man Side Swiper Friend pulled out his “documentation.” Not so cute. What did I do to deserve this? Where’s my mom?!
The Deal: First of all, there’s the old resentment towards wannabe hippies that I’ve had since my early years in Berkeley, California. There’s nothing funny about peace, love, and understanding, so long as you have car insurance. Secondly, until my insurance gets it’s act together, I have to look at my poor, injured, helpless car in it’s sad state and that’s VERY HARD for someone who has Compulsive Neatness (yes, I do ask people who come into my apartment to take off their shoes and that’s annoying even to me).
Now, it is true that my bumper was due for some body work. I do a lot of parallel parking and some days my spatial senses function better than others (hey, that’s why they call them “bumpers”!). But still…looking at the damage is a kind of torture.
Just for today, I have car sadness (although I’m grateful I didn’t get hurt).
How did you get so funny? And yes, they do call them bumpers for that specific reason!!
Awww, the poor lil car! I hope she pulls through all right. Thank goodness no one was hurt!