Yesterday started off just terrific. My husband arranged for my son and a friend to get a private and personal tour of Blizzard, the company that creates the computer game World of Warcraft, among others. The kids were absolutely vibrating with happiness. We went from Blizzard to a tour of the university's fabulous film school, escorted by the dean himself (whose contact was the fantastic guy at Blizzard!) After a long day, I took my son's friend home and headed to our place over the big hill. I was stopped at a red light, giving a subtle "stink eye" to the guy to my left who had been tailgating me for miles. I'm a serious follow-the-road-rules kind of girl and get very grumpy about people who drive dangerously because they are in a hurry to get nowhere. A slow truck I had driven past a few minutes before apparently lost his brakes on the ride down this very large hill (not quite mountain) and absolutely bombed into the cars immediately to my left. He smashed their cars through the intersection, hitting cars in the cross traffic. A total of eight cars were involved in the accident. One victim had to be taken by helicopter to the trauma center in Los Angeles; the other driver (the man I'd been giving the stink eye) was not as seriously injured, but is in the hospital and the cars destroyed. My son and I were terribly shaken, but grateful that all we suffered was rattled nerves, a blown out back window and scuffs from flying debris to one side of the van. A witness to the accident told me she observed it from behind and saw the truck heading toward my vehicle, when he swerved a little left and missed us.
Needless to say, I didn't sleep much last night. When I did, I had terrible dreams, recalling the car I was looking at getting hit at full speed while he was stopped. It was terrifying. To top matters, I had another close call today when a fool pulled in front of my car from a side street and then stopped. I slammed on the brakes of my rental car and swerved to avoid hitting him. I think I'll stay home for the rest of the weekend and lock myself in the studio. I'm safe there.
What a day.
