Tuesday, November 27, 2007

It's my "thing"

Everyone's got a "thing", right? Something mystical, something that just IS about someone, you know? Something that happens for a person, without any effort. A gimmick, perhaps. For instance, Shiree walks into a room and owns it without intention. You just can't not stop and stare at her when she's around. My friend Amy oozes sexuality and confidence. My co-worker Lois can keep a straight face regardless of what's being pulled on her. Remind me to never play poker with her! Heidi manages to attract the crappiest of men, despite the fact that she's beautiful, intelligent, and sophisticated. These are things that can't be controlled or helped, they just are. Some of it is good, some bad. But that's not the point of this.

What's my "thing", my gimmick? It became all too clear to me today. What does Christy do? She witnesses car accidents. It's like a magnetic forcefield. They're drawn to me. I seem to be right there, in the frontlines of it all, but manage to escape without a scratch.

Today I was picking up the girls from Jeremy's house, on possibly the busiest city road in all of Salt Lake County, stopped at a red light waiting to turn left. I was at the front of the line. In the middle of the intersection was a Dodge 1500 pick up towing a trailer. To my immediate right, a car comes zooming down the road, oblivious to the red light, and slams into the drivers side door of the truck. The truck driver gets out the other side, goes and goes to the car who hit him, and the girl gets out of the car, then passes out in the middle of the intersection, while I'm on the phone with 911.

Ultimately, everyone was fine and was able to walk away from this. I have a terrible, terrible fear of car accidents, that goes back exactly 11 years MINUS TWO DAYS, where I was in a bad car accident on the day after Thanksgiving. I was okay, but the car was totalled. I was driving over an icy bridge and lost control. It took me YEARS to recover from that (sometimes I wonder if I really am?), but shit like this accident has popped up all too often. I know the course. I know how to fill out the police forms. I know what info they need. I know that in all of these cases, had the drivers turned their steering wheels slightly in a different direction, I could have been seriously hurt.

Bah. Be smart, people! Pay attention to red lights, halted traffic, your blind spots, and don't J-Walk!

I'm going to cover this post with another, more uplifting post, that will include pictures. I just needed to type this out!

3 comments:

eric said...

Maybe I'm crazy, but perhaps your mind is tuned into this sort of thing? I find that if I obsess about something enough, I'm inundated with impressions and information. I start reading people as soon as they get near me, and I think it's because I'm obsessed with observation and details. When I walk into a house, I make mental notes of what brand of hardware is on the door, how many steps I'm taking, and the floor plan of the building or house I'm in. I don't know why. But in doing so, I also read the people inside the building. Something, somehow, just clicks inside my head. Maybe for you, it's accidents. You might have a sense of the conditions that create them.

Or maybe I AM crazy.

Anonymous said...

Christy, I love you....but remind me to never drive anywhere close to you!

I'll either have to arrive way early, or show up way later than you do to any future events we'll be attending together!!!

Which reminds me....WHEN AM I GOING TO SEE YOU??? IT'S BEEN FOREVER!!!!!

Anonymous said...

hey...thanks! i feel oozey!