Eh, That's Life!

The other night, I drove down to Youngstown to see some friends I hadn't seen in a very long time. It was fabulous. One of my friends was having her annual Christmas party, and as usual the food was delicious. Her two kids are getting SO big, talking up a storm, and just so friendly.
I ran into a few other friends while I was at her house, so I caught up with them for a little bit and then I left to go meet some other friends.

My friends now live mostly all over the place. Arizona, California, Kansas City, New Mexico. And I live near Cleveland now...and we talk all the time about if we win the lottery, where will we go? Someplace with a better climate, I'm sure! Anyway, it isn't very often that so many of us are in one place at one time and I'd like to thank Matt and Kelly for hosting all of us. I wished that I didn't live so far so I could've indulged in a little bit more wine.

And, further, how grown up is that? You know, drinking wine instead of beer? My boyfriend was going to come down with me but he's been under the weather over the Christmas holiday so unfortunately he stayed home...it was a good thing too because I didn't make it home until about 2:30am.

I would have been home sooner but I had a little incident involving me and a deer going up route 11. That road is dark. I know you can hit a deer in broad daylight but my accident occurred in the dead of night. I saw a deer in my headlights, stomped on the brakes, and still I'm pretty sure my car won...I say this because I didn't stop to check on the deer. I feel badly about that, but what could I have done? I couldn't see anything!

I was about five miles south of 90 at this point and so as soon as I was able to, I stopped at the nearest rest stop, in Austinberg. Just as I was pulling into the gas station, a cop swung in behind me, lights a-flashing. Great. I got all the required items together, rolled my window down, and watched the guy saunter up so he could ask me the questions: "Do you know why I pulled you over?"

I so wish I could've said "GEE, probably because there's a gaping hole where my headlight used to be!" but instead I told him I'd just hit a deer and was pulling in to check the damage. He still ran my license even though there were tufts of deer hair stuck in the shards of my headlight. The front hood is a little crumpled and dented and there are dents on the front and side fenders. But my car still runs. I was hoping to limp it along one more year and buy a Honda next Christmas...We'll see how much the repairs will be and what the insurance company says.

And still, I can't really get that upset about it. My car is old. I just saw friends I hadn't seen in some cases for several years. It could've been a lot worse. I'd had some good coffee and hilarious conversations. I played euchre. I parked on the front lawn of Kelly and Matt's house because there were so many cars. It was still a great night.