There but for the Grace of G*d;T-boned on Summit and Pine

Please know this is my third go at writing this entry. When I tell you that the energy around seattle has been weird, I really mean it. For instance, yesterday was my second to last day here at le Village du Universite. After two relatively uneventful years of working here, the entire power grid from the University Hospital to Laurelhurst went out. That includes the whole village. It was a madhouse. People were stuck in the elevators, cars couldnt get past the garage gates, all the restraunts lost product and no one could sell anything since everyone has computorized point of sale systems. Exept for losing this blog twice, I loved it! Nothing could go as normal, people's perfectly planned errands were all messed up. It was chaotic and wonderful. And I got to stand outside and answer dumb questions about when the power would come back on (I dont know!!! I dont even know how electricity works! Or why it went off in the first place!) and if stores would get fined for closing early. Some man brought me a peice of pizza cause they werent gonna sell it in time anyway. Nice! He thought I was pregnant, though, so thats probably why. Oh well! I love pouffy sundresses and if they get me a free lunch then yeah! Im due in the fall!
In other weird energy news, I was t-boned at 10:40 am on July the 28th, three days ago. I was on the way to pick up Parker and Carrie and go to the beach, which I was very excited about. I was talking and laughing my ass off on the phone with Frances, driving straight west on pine at about 30 mph when a 17 year old girl driving a mid 90's black jetta blew the stop sign going north at the intersection of pine and summit, right in front of the cha cha lounge, and totally broadsided SIZZLA to the drivers side. I didnt even see her coming, which is good. I was so relaxed my body rolled like water with the impact. The glass of both drivers side windows shattered all over me and the car swung in a huge circle and I ended up going south on summit before i came to my senses and stopped. I was very shaken and couldnt beleieve it when I looked down and saw that I had no visible injuries. I turned my head from side to side, half expecting it to come off, but felt no discomfort. My door wouldnt open, so I had to climb over the console to get out the passenger side. I had some small cuts and glass shards all over me, but thats it. There was a witness, a big teddy bearish guy with lots of tattoos who saw the girl fail to stop at the stop sign. The girl, a very new driver, was sobbing and worried that her parents would kill her. I went and gave her a hug and told her I was ok. She had a friend with her who told me " im so glad youre not one of those people who gets out of the car and starts yelling." Shit, I was so glad to be alive and unharmed, How could I be mad? The car, on the other hand is not so lucky. Both doors are mashed into the car, the frame between the doors is too which is the real hurter. A little frame damage goes a long way. The police came and took a report. Both of us are insured, thats really wonderful. In point of fact, if they decide liabilty is hers and that my car is totaled, I could be in pretty good shape considering I needed to sell the car before I go to NYC anyway. I keep icing my neck waiting for it to hurt, and hearing the voice of the Collision One Autobody guy being like "Are you really ok? That was a hell of an impact!" Ill be at the chiropractor tomorrow for an exam to make sure.
So its great that the insurance is covering a rental car for me. But its really too bad that its a Ford Focus. Not only because the focus hasnt a MODICUM of style, and not only because I have to walk around to each door and lock it by hand, but maybe if I had never driven before I would think the focus drove smoothly, but after two plus years of driving a Lexus, the jerky steering and touchy brakes are so SO unsatisfying. Not to mention it feels like a tin can, has rollemup rollemdown windows and a fucking TAPE DECK. Why are they even making new cars with tape decks? Who is out there buying music on tape? Are there people who shop for music exclusively from the spinning tape displays at 7-11's and truck stops? To avoid seattle radio, I'm relegated to scrounging for music from my late 80s and 90s tape collections, which puts me listening to Jimmy Sommerville and Bronski Beat, Tracy Chapman, Edie Brickell, The Smiths, Seal, Janis Joplin, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, Ziggy Marley, old Mary J Blige and the Pharcyde. And mix tapes, the ones we all used to make for each other all the time. Mostly from people I dont even know anymore. A forced trip down memory lane in a Ford Focus. Ill be calling monday and requesting an upgrade considering that Im accustomed to a luxury vehicle. ;)
This kind of segways us into memorabelia, which I didnt finish from last posting. I should know by now that I never finish anything that sayse to be continued. Id always ratehr start anew than pick up where I left off. Even if the topic is the same. Byt anyway memeorabelia is a joy and a pain. Alll these pictures, cards letters tchotchkes, receipts, ticket stubs flyers wristbands fortune cookie fortunes and mementose of bygone people places and times. If youre anything like me, you have to revisit these physical vestiges of the past periodically or find yourself bereft of all that love loss and life that has come before. It all gets erased by the whitenoise snowblanket of years that keep lining up between now and then.
Poring over the pictures and words, little reliquaries for your dead prior selves you can conjure just that breezy little heart clench, a shadow of feeling not even a real memory, of the rich emotion and experience you had at that the time of that thing's currency.
The thing about those momentos is, put them all together and they weigh a shit-ton! Keeping just the pictures alone you might as well cart your 1974 Marigold Amana top loading oven and four burner electric range with you wherever your carefree spirit desires. There is no way I will be able to wholesale get rid of all of it. My mom taught us never to get rid of pictures, that youll always want them later (but I cant store them at her house though! tampers with the feng shui! Aint that a bitch!) so ill allow myself a box of pics and a box of other various reminders. To that end I had to go through my boxes of notebooks and papers from college. It was a very unsettling experience. I read a couple of papers and was dismayed at my rather sharp dropoff in intellect over the past five years. Considering ive done nothing more challenging academically than fill in a bubble im suprised I can still spell and put together sentences coherently. A fact I chalk up to learning english at such an early age. But seriously, I read a paper from a political islam class I took about the 1997 elections in Iran. Not only was it really quite good but if youd told me it was written my Joe Shmoe from Kokomo I woulda beleived you because I dont remember a dadburned thing about it! All Im left with is the name of the president, the terms hojatelislam and and velayat-e-faqih, and the fact that a lot of young people voted. It was a ten page paper!!! Very upsetting. Im afraid to look at my honors thesis.
Oh well, I do a killer rollerset and can tell you what onychomycosis looks like. Thats just as good as an understanding of international political economy! Right?