February 16th

Hi, it’s Christina –

Just a real quick update on the prayer requests I asked for yesterday. My niece’s surgery went well. She now has three pins in her hand and seven or eight (the doctor lost count) screws in her ankle. She may be in the hospital for another day or so, but she’ll be fine.

I did find out the kid who was airlifted out is a high school student and his first name is Jimmy, but that’s all I know. I cannot find any updates anywhere, so all I can do is pray for the best. At least now you have a name – Jimmy – to add to your prayers.

As if all of this isn’t enough, tragedy has struck my son’s circle of friends yet again. Although my son was not friends with this boy, Billy, many of his friends were. It appears Billy was found beaten to death behind one of the houses on Rutgers yesterday. Details are sketchy at best, but it is a sad situation none the less. Another young life cut short. It’s just heartbreaking.

Okay, I will not plague you with any more sad thoughts today. I hope y’all have a great day, and happy writing!

January 10th

Hi, it’s Christina –

What a surprise, it’s snowing … again. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for spring! I’m really going to be hating this weather when I come back to New Jersey next Sunday after spending three days in South Carolina.

So we had some excitement around here last night, and not the good kind. About twenty minutes to seven, there was a pretty bad car accident at my corner. It’s so strange, I happened to be outside at the time and looking toward the intersection when it happened, yet I have no idea what happened. The first thing that registered in my brain was the noise, and then watching the traffic light fall.

I took my first step toward the scene, then I quick turned around and yelled into the house for Dani to call 911, and then I ran out to the intersection. There were two cars involved, both SUV type vehicles. I had to choose which car to go to, and since the lady in the red truck had already got out of her vehicle and was walking around to her passenger’s side, I started to head to the silver car, which is the one who took down the traffic signal. As I was about to cross the street, Dani hands me the phone with the dispatcher on the other line who begins to ask me questions. Is anyone hurt? How many cars involved? Etc.

I start to relay the information to the dispatcher, explaining everything that is going on around me. “Two cars. The traffic signal was taken out. Fluid coming from one vehicle but it appears to be antifreeze. One driver does not appear to be hurt, she is out of her vehicle and walking around. I believe she has a passenger, but I don’t know their status. I’m headed over to the next vehicle to check on the other driver.”

I finally get to the car. At first the man thought I was the driver of the other car and he asked me why I ran through a red light. He was agitated, hyperventilating, and appeared to be on the verge on a panic attack. I explained to him I was not the driver of the other car, that I live in the house on the corner. I manage to get him calmed down, and the whole time the dispatcher is listening to our conversation. (It is going to be a really long 911 tape.)

At this point an off duty police officer pulls up and begins to help (but I didn’t know he was a police officer), but his arrival gets the driver of the silver car all flustered again. I tell the dispatcher a fireman has arrived, but he’s from another town. The dispatcher asks where and I go to read what his jacket says. The cop hears me say “He’s from…” and he says “Hillsborough Police Department”. The dispatcher must have recognized his voice, because he says “Oh, ok. Ambulances are on their way.” I say okay and we disconnect.

Now the driver is out of his car and is starting to panic, and the police officer – I don’t want to say yells, because that would imply he was being mean and he really wasn’t – firmly tells the driver to sit back down in his car. I tell the cop, “I’ve got him, go check out the other people.” Then I try to calm the man down again. He hands me his phone and asks me to call his wife. I finally get him to the point where he’s not gasping for air, and I’m also now trying to calm his wife down on the phone when the cop come back and yells get the car turned off; (please keep in mind, he is only yelling to be heard; the scene was very noisy) but his voice upsets the man all over again.

I put the car in park and try to turn the car off but it wouldn’t shut off. I tell the officer, and he leans in and finally manages to turn it off. I assure the wife her husband’s only injury was a small cut on his finger she would be able to kiss and make all better and I would stay with him until everything was over. I disconnect with the wife and get the man calmed down again.

The ambulances finally pull up on the scene. That’s when I find out the man’s car is on top of live wires and we need to back away from the vehicle. (Would have been nice to know before we had the man sit back in his car, and before both the officer and I were leaning in his car to try and get it turned off.) I pass the man off to the EMTs and begin to walk away when I hear my name being called from the side of the road.

Turns out one of my ex-cheerleaders, who is also a neighbor, was sitting at the light when the accident happened. Thankfully her and her car were not involved, but the wires were touching her car, so she was standing on the side of the road with her mom. We chatted for a few minutes, then I left to try and get the traffic turned around and away from the scene. I did that for a few minutes until the cop yelled at me that I was going to get hit and not to worry about it. So I gave up and went back to my house. When I looked at the clock, it was seven-ten.

All of that happened in a little over half an hour, but wait, the story doesn’t end there. When most of the hullabaloo was over – around nine - I took Colby out. That’s when I heard the man from the silver SUV arguing with the tow truck driver. Colby starts barking his head off, so I bring him inside. I go back out just in time to see the tow truck driver literally squeal away, and to hear the man cry, “Don’t leave me here. Please don’t leave me here!”

Seriously? It was twenty-five degrees outside and that heartless creep leaves a man who was just in a car accident stranded, in the dark, on the side of the road, with a phone that wasn’t working. It’s times like that when I pray Karma really works.

I walk over to the man, who is now crying and shivering. “The police told me the tow truck driver would take me home, but he just left me out here.”

“Come on, I’ll get you home.” I put my arm around his shoulder and walked him back to my house. Asked him to wait a second so I could tell my husband what I was doing, then I piled him and the few things that jerk of a tow truck driver allowed him to get from his car, and drove him home – all the way to Princeton Junction, a little over half an hour away.

I cranked the heat in the car to high, but he was so cold, the poor man didn’t stop shaking until we reached Nassau Street in Princeton. The whole drive I chatted with him to try and keep his mind off of what had happened to him. Turns out the man works at a Pharmaceutical company nearby, has 2 PhDs – one in Biochemistry and one in Biophysics, and has two young children. During our conversation, I came to know he is an incredibly brilliant and very sweet man. When he started explaining about the work he does in developing cancer fighting drugs, I knew he was starting to relax and would be okay.

I drop him off, safe and sound, at home, and then I head directly to our police station to file a complaint against the tow truck driver. The police had left the man sitting in the tow truck, thinking everything was finished. Needless to say, the police were not happy to hear what had happened after they had left the scene. Then they were shocked that I drove the man all the way home, and said I should have called and they would have done it. Oh yeah, being brought home in a cop car would have been the icing on the cake to the man’s day.

Since this blog post is about double the normal size of my posts, I will forego the writing challenge for today. I wish you all a marvelous day & happy writing!

August 11th

Hi, it’s Christina –
 

It took over eleven hours, but we finally made it to the Outer Banks. Unfortunately, this is how our trip started:

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Driver-Killed-in-6-Car-Crash-on-I-295-219102701.html

 

Even after many years on the rescue squad, and being on countless accident scenes, seeing this one shook me up. There was literally NOTHING left on the outside of this car, just a mangled blob of twisted medal. I’m kinda glad everyone else in my car was asleep, so they don’t have the image permanently imprinted on their brain.

 

My husband and daughters woke up as when we were on the Chesapeake Bay-Bridge-Tunnel (they slept through two pit-stops and a gas fill-up) and wanted breakfast, so we stopped at Denny’s. Denny’s is usually known for their quick service, so I figured we’d be back on the road in half an hour. Almost two hours later, we get finish breakfast and are able to start heading south again. I realize things are done at a much more relaxed pace down here, but come on – two hours for breakfast? Seriously?

 

As usual, because we had plenty of time at Denny’s, I chatted with another customer. I made the comment about how many NJ License plates were in the parking lot. Not only was the man from New Jersey, he lives less than a mile from my house. I always said there were zero degrees of separation for our town!

 

Whatever, as long as I can hit that main strip getting onto the Outer Banks before one (rule of thumb for check in time on the island is 4:00 pm, so the closer you get to that time the thicker the traffic gets), I figure I will be able to avoid most of the traffic.

 

The first snarl happens fifty-two miles out and my eye starts to twitch. If I had to sit in fifty-two miles of bumper to bumper traffic, I was going to go postal. Luckily, it was only about two miles of back-up which I think was caused by an engineering error. Tons of cars had to get off at one exit, and the exit ramp was preceded by an equally busy entrance ramp. POOR planning if you ask me.

 

Traffic finally starts moving again and I think I’m in the clear, then boom, twenty miles out, it is bumper to bumper again. The last time we came to the Outer Banks, this strip took us over four hours to get through. This time, I managed in just under two, so I am considering it a bonus, but still at this point I am DONE and just want to get settled into the house, get some dinner and crash.

 

We get the keys, find the house and unload all of our junk. After the food is unpacked and put away, the next thing on my agenda is to make the beds. I go to make our bed, and the comforter they have on it is disgusting. I pull it off the bed and go to throw it in the washing machine, but it doesn’t fit, so I call the rental office and tell them about it. The girl asks what’s on the comforter and I tell her “Sorry, I left my CSI kit at home.” (You don’t even want to know.) They send the cleaning crew back to my house to get the comforter. As I am waiting for them to show up, I start looking around the place. The floors are a mess, the tub was not cleaned, the beds are sandy. OK, I can understand sand on the floors and the rugs. It is almost impossible to get the sand out when the house is in a beach town, but on the beds? The owner of the cleaning company shows up – what a sweet guy – I show him everything, and he immediately gets on the phone and arranges a crew to come over and clean again.

 

During this time we realize the AC is not working and we cannot get on to the internet. I am back on the phone with the rental agency. They say they will send over a computer guy and someone to fix the AC. She tells me a storm is rolling in, so things should cool down quickly and I should open the windows.

 

While I’m dealing with all of this, I send my husband and oldest daughter to the store and I wait for the various crews to show up and fix everything. I go to open the windows and find, except for two, the screens are either ripped, missing or filled with spiders so there was no way they were going to be opened.

 

The cleaning crew arrives and offers to clean everything, including the dishes which I have now discovered are all pretty gross. I told them I would just put everything through the dishwasher, and they could focus on the house. So the dishwasher is running, two vacuum cleaners are running, my youngest daughter has the TV going, and the computer guy and the owner of the cleaning company’s wife (another sweetie) show up. Now there are four extra people in the bungalow all working when Mother Nature decides to flex her muscles in the form of torrential rain, thunder and lightning. Of course the power goes out.

 

This is when my husband and daughter come back from the store. Did you know they only use paper bags in the stores down here? No plastic. Paper bags hold up so well during a downpour. Yup, you guessed it, groceries all over the driveway. You would think one of us would have thought to bring an umbrella. At this point, I don’t even want dinner, I just want to go to bed so I can wake up Sunday and all this would be over.

 

Power comes back on. The internet is now working. The cleaning crew finishes and promises to come back the next day with a clean comforter and extra dishwasher soap to replace what I used to clean what should have been cleaned before I got here. The AC guy shows up. Turns out the drainage lines were clogged, so the safety was shutting the unit down so the house wouldn’t flood. Easy fix, we are golden. My husband gets the grill assembled and cooks some burgers for dinner.

 

After dinner is cleaned up, I say I’m FINISHED and head for bed, the wonderful bed that squeaks so wonderfully with any slight movement you make. I try lying perfectly still so I don’t set off the bed and realize the bungalow has a pretty serious design flaw. All of the interior doors have louvers and are not solid. Not only do they not muffle sound within the house, somehow they manage to magnify the sound. So instead of sleeping, I am listing to the movie my family is watching in the living room.

Eventually I do manage to fall asleep, only to wake up at four a.m. (I misread the clock and thought it was six.) So this morning already I have emptied and reloaded the dishwasher, gone grocery shopping for items which were not purchased by my husband and daughter which we need – ie: half and half for the coffee - put everything away and have written this long-winded blog.

If find, at the moment, I am too tired and rather uninspired to tackle a writing challenge, so you have another day’s reprieve. Hopefully my husband has stopped snoring and I can go back to bed and get a few more hours of sleep. We will start up the writing challenges again tomorrow.

 

Have a wonderful day and happy writing!

August 8th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Yesterday I got one of those phone calls every parent dreads. Your child is on the other end of the line crying saying they were in an accident.

Your brain does not process the fact that they were able to call you, speak to you, tell you what happened, so therefore they are not lying in a ditch bleeding and unconscious; you’re only focus is I’ve got to get to my baby. Until you hold them in your arms and see for yourself that they are alright, you are in panic mode.

My daughter borrowed my car so she could have a goodbye lunch with a group of friends who were all leaving for college. With one friend and an exchange student in the car with her, my daughter was driving to the restaurant when the brakes failed on the car. When she attempted to get off the main, heavy trafficked drag onto a secondary road which she thought would be a safer place to try and pull over, she was not able to slow down enough to make the turn safely and she hit a car coming down the secondary road.

The guy she hit was a real jerk and started screaming at her, which upset her even more. (The nice police officer put a kibosh on the man’s ranting real quick when he informed the man a brake failure caused the accident, but the creep never came over to apologize for over reacting.)

The extent of the injuries were: my daughter’s friend had a tiny piece of glass in her leg which she pulled out herself, I cleaned and my daughter put a Band-Aid on; my daughter jammed her thumb, has minor bruises from the seat belt and from where the airbag hit her, and her neck is a little stiff. If you saw what the car looked like, you’d be amazed the injuries were so slight – NOT THAT I’M COMPLAINING.

So today, in addition to the long list of things I needed to get done, I now have to deal with the insurance company. Thankfully, they are all really great, so it shouldn’t be a problem, but it will be an hour or so I could have spent tackling other things. That being said, I need to get this show on the road.

Hope everyone has a wonderful (and safe) day! Happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

 

 

I see you out there, through my window, taunting me, mocking me. Don’t you think I would rather be with you instead of in here working? I know I can’t. I have too much to do. I must be strong. Perhaps I can finish quickly. No, if I rush it will be obvious, the work will be filled with mistakes I would just have to fix later. Why must you look so inviting? You have become such a distraction; I will never get this work done.

Maybe if I take just half an hour … no, No, NO, I must be strong!

Determined, I get up, pull the curtains closed with a snap and get back to writing.

 

 

See, even items with no reflective properties can become shiny objects… well at least they can for me. Sorry, I know it is short today. Sometimes life itself becomes its own shiny object.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

There’s a knock on the door. The unfamiliar person on the other side says they grew up in the house and would like to see it. What happens next? (You can be the knocker or the person opening the door.)

 

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.