My Worst Day Became my Worst Week

If any of my blog readers know me personally, you would know that I'm a generally positive person with a generally positive outlook on just about everything. You would also know that I just recently had my worst day ever when I was rear ended by someone. No, it was not my fault. You would think that, because it was such a simple rear-ending, it would be a simple fix. At least, that's what I thought and was hoping for. But boy was I wrong. My worst day (in the history of ever), is becoming my worst week ever. I feel like it's starting to become my worst month ever. So here is my story on how that came to be.

Let me start with what happened with the wreck. I was driving to school from work, and I took my usual route. There was traffic, but there is hardly ever a time when there isn't traffic on that route. I took my exit, and I was basically at the exit of the exit. The intersection I was approaching is set up so that those that are exiting (those heading northward) proceed through the intersection without stopping, and the people that are going through the intersection the opposite direction (those going west or turning north from the west) are supposed to stop. A lot of times people will cut in front of those coming off the exit ramp and the people coming off the exit ramp have to slam on their brakes. Well, the person in front of me slammed on their brakes so I slammed on mine. My car was stopped, and was about to jerk me back into my seat when I flew forward and hit my head on the steering wheel. I blacked out briefly and as such, did not realize I was just rear ended. I started to drive away, but heard a scraping noise and then a sizzling noise and decided to inspect further. I stumbled out of my car and found that my car was mostly okay, and the guy that hit me, well, his car was just done for. I call 911, the cops come, yada yada yada....

At first we worried if my car was going to get totaled out, the damage was pretty bad. Aside from the cosmetic element of the accident, my exhaust system got all messed up, the trunk won't close because the bottom half of the trunk (and not the trunk door itself) got pushed in towards my engine, my glove box is broken and won't close, and as I'm driving it more, I'm finding that my alignment got messed up too. It doesn't seem too bad, but I've had to fix my car redneck style at least 3 different times now. It doesn't feel safe to drive, it honestly scares me to drive, and somehow it was still deemed "driveable," and "safe to drive." 

Anyway, I digress. They did not total my car out and I was pretty relieved. This is my first car and I just wasn't ready to say goodbye to it just yet. I scheduled for a time to take it in and get repaired, and find that, because we are in Texas and because some of the worst weather happens in March and April, that it will take a week for them to get it in. That didn't seem too bad, but the more I drive it, the more things go wrong with it, and at this point I'm just ready to pay for a rental out of pocket. 

Before I get into the mess with getting a rental though, I'll get into more dirty details. So I went to the doctor the day after my accident (Last Wednesday, the 6th) to get checked out. I was really sore and couldn't move my neck, and I was also showing symptoms of a concussion. Well, I found out I did have a concussion, I had whiplash, and then I had a contusion (or a severe bruise). The doctor prescribed me to 12 sessions of Physical Therapy. which translates to 4 weeks, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Because of this, my work hours have been severely hampered. Along with that, I refuse to take my car on the freeway, so my commute time doubled (it takes me close to an hour to get from home to work and vice versa). Thankfully I have an awesome boss who understands what I'm going through. She is always quick to remind me that I will come out of this knowing something that I didn't before, and it's probably something that is important and that I needed to know. But even an awesome boss can't just make hours appear on your time clock. So my income is being hampered severely. 

Well, then I realized, after my car goes into the shop, I'll need a rental. Usually, to rent a car, you have to be 21, and I'm only 20. That rule is utter horseshit to me because I can drive, and move out of the house (and even to a different state, in my case), but when I get rear ended (and it wasn't my fault) I can't get a vehicle to get me to essential everyday functions of my life. I just don't get it.

I digress, again. So the end of the semester is near, and that means that the projects are just being thrown at you from all 360 degrees. Everywhere you turn another paper is due, or another test is assigned. Because of that, I've been very short on time, and having a broken car means I run even shorter on time because it takes me longer to get to where I need to go. Being a working college student without a car is literally a living nightmare. I finally was able to go into Enterprise today to talk to them. Well, because of all the hail-storms that have been coming around here recently, they had a waitlist of 20 people. Furthermore, the only way I can get a rental is if my insurance will set up a direct bill. Oh, and they tack on a fee for anyone under the age of 20. And you have to have full coverage insurance on your current car.

Needless to say, after my car goes into the shop, I don't know if I'll have a rental. And if I don't that means I don't know how  I'll get to work. At this point my only even semi viable option is a three hour commute time by public transportation. Or taking a taxi. At this point, I'm basically at the mercy of God, and I know that. I've prayed and prayed for something good to come through and so far, not much has. But I know that there is a silver lining somewhere and I've just got to keep trudging on through the mess to see the silver lining. 

I'm so stressed out and downright frustrated about the whole situation in general, but even more so with just the rental car thing I want to cry and scream and get a hug from my parents and a kiss from my dog. But we can't have everything we want in life can we?

~Alyssa