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car

Going Out With a Bang
Karen, Susan and Rachel were in town for the holiday. I'd made plans to go out with Karen and Rachel in Kansas City for New Years again. Susan wasn't going to be able to go to Kansas City, and this way I could follow Karen to her new crib. In the afternoon we did a little furniture shopping and I got Karen hooked on Entourage. She was telling everybody about it. We even picked up some cute New Years tiaras.

That's when I discovered that Karen has an issue with asking direct questions.

Trying to find New Years tiaras at Hobby Lobby: "Hi. At Christmas time you guys had Santa hats and stuff like that and I was just wondering if you had New Years Eve crowns." What? Why are you bringing up Santa Claus?

Later that night I met up with her and Tiffany at Elephant Bar, then we drove downtown to a bar called Laclede Parc. We were down on Washington, and had plans to head to South County to meet up with Susan & Win afterwards, so we needed be sure which way to go to get to 55 when we left.

So she asks a ST. LOUIS CITY POLICE OFFICER, "Do you the streets around here?" He looked at her skeptically, "Yes." "Do you know where 55 is?" "No, no idea. Yes." "How do we get there from here."

Honey! He's a cop, on patrol in the area, of COURSE he knows his way around, just ask him for the directions! (Right on Washington, Right on Memorial.)

So Laclede Parc is a really pretty bar. I'd never been there before, they make the best dirty martini I've ever had. And Karen's a big fan of the mints.

Then we drove down to South County to meet up with Signor e Signora Anderson. And the bambino/a to be named later. Win & his friend were telling ridiculous stories from Kirksville, and Karen was yelling at Susan for not letting her hang out with Win in college (for fear he would run screaming in terror).

After we closed down the bar, and were hustled out by super-impatient bouncer, we headed back to my condo. I noticed when we were driving north on 55 that my gas warning light was on. When I'd left the condo for elephant bar, I thought we'd just be heading one place, and more than likely, not in my car, so I wasn't too concerned about it, just figured I'd gas up before we left for KC in the morning.

So I thought I'd have enough gas to get back to the condo, and fill up at the Mobil down the block. I was wrong. Or should I say, we'll never know if we could have made it to the gas station.

We were coming around the curve on Natural Bridge in front of the Bridgeton Police Station when I felt the gas pedal fail to react. I was pumping the gas and barely retaining my speed. Then I started to slow down. We were just a couple of blocks from the gas station and pointed down hill, so I thought we'd probably be able to coast to the gas station. Since it's only one lane each way on Natural Bridge there, I moved over onto the shoulder as far as I could, so people could pass me if they wanted to. I was down to 20 mph, and the condo entrance was just out of sight. Two cars had passed me already, and a third was coming up behind.

AND THEN HE SLAMMED INTO US. I saw his hood crumple in my rear view mirror. We were both wearing our seatbelts, so it was more of a shock than anything else, but we were both shaking from the experience.

So I pulled onto the shoulder, and Karen called the police, and I called my mom. At 2:15 in the morning. The guy got out of his car and said something about "well, I WOULD have said it was a good night." I told him we had the police call under control. Then we sat in the car and trembled until Officer Jim showed up.

Officer Jim is the nicest, cutest older gentleman police officer I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. He got everybody's information, and I'm going to call him tonight to get the report number (because the computers were down). He was very kind an comforting, like a grandpa.

Limited damage (on my end, anyway), but because the muffler was knocked loose, I can't really drive it until I get it repaired. So, sadly, the trip to Kansas City had to be cancelled.

In Summary: crunched bumper, hanging muffler, broken whatever-you-call-that-piece under the taillight.

AWW MAN!! Not the Princess Bride bumper sticker! That's irreplaceable!



All the red is residue from the car that hit me. His whole hood crunched up. And apparently was, at one point, IN my car.