Have you ever been the victim of a crime?
I was driving home from dropping off my husband at work in Washington, DC; we lived in Maryland at the time. I had three small children in car seats in the back of our minivan. The road is largely empty because rush hour is over.
All at once, a purple van pulls in front of me, super-close. I have to hit my brakes, harder and faster than I've ever hit them before, just to keep from rear-ending this purple van. I'm moving to the left to get around him, but he's moving in front of me as well, also hitting his brakes, like he wants me to hit him.
I'd never experienced anything this before. In a few seconds, I'm stopped on the side of the road, this purple van a little bit in front of me, also stopped.
A voice in my head fairly yelled at me, only one word. "Go!"
I obeyed the voice instantly. I didn't know what those people wanted. I wasn't sure if I'd hit them, but as soon as they were stopped, I took off. Got right back on the road and drove, getting closer to some other cars so there would be witnesses to whatever happened next.
The purple van, with tinted windows so I couldn't see anyone inside, also got back on the road. Drove right past me, and kept going, like nothing had happened.
I don't know what might have happened to me, or my kids, or my car that day. Just glad it didn't. It did provide great fodder for my book, though - a similar incident plagued my main character - but with much more dramatic results, of course.
Have you ever been in a serious accident?
All my accidents were serious - all three of them - but only seriously disabling to my ego. Never anything else. They all happened within nine months of each other. I thought I was jinxed.
The first one, I went to make a U-turn from the middle lane, right in front of another car I didn't know was there. That was the scariest one too - my kids were in the back of the car at the time. Fortunately, they were all right, but we sustained some body damage, and our insurance took a hit.
The second one hurt the most, one month later - got rear-ended in the rain by an uninsured driver. Well, he had insurance, but they weren't about to pay me anything, so he might as well have been uninsured. Had a tiny bit of whiplash headache from that one. He only hit me at about 20mph. Again, my insurance blamed me and we paid.
The third time was only three months after that. I was pulling out of the parking lot at the library, and got clipped by someone passing by me. Again, the terrible sinking feeling of 'where's my insurance and license? How much is this going to cost?" I scratched the paint on their car, they took out my rear light. The scratch on their car cost my insurance $600, and cost me my insurance.
I didn't drive for about a year after that, until we switched insurance companies and I got insured again. Been totally clean ever since.
Has anyone ever saved your life?
When I was 12, I went on a big trip with all the young people from my church - a hike through the Zion Narrows in Utah. It's only 13 miles, they said. I'll be fun, they said.
It wasn't fun, clinging to a small ledge next to a waterfall, unable to move forward, all alone in a very unforgiving wilderness. My brother and another adult leader came along in the nick of time. Never in my life had I been so happy to see him, before or since.
Have you ever been hospitalized? If so, what for?
When I was seven years old, my kidneys nearly shut down. Peeing blood is, apparently, not normal, and neither is that constant pain in the back.
I had to stand inside a big trash bag while the doctors performed tests. Sticking tubes in me, and standing next to large machines was never my favorite activity.
I learned that drinking water on a regular basis was not
an optional thing. I almost never ate vegetables back then, so my diet
was completely devoid of water, and my kidneys didn't like it. If it meant staying out of the hospital, I was all over that. Now I drink tons of water and veggie juice and eat veggies whenever possible - have for years.
Have you ever had surgery?
When I got a job in Seattle, Washington around age 21, I splurged on a gym membership, which was so exciting. I could swim, I could look at the weight machines and wonder what they were for, I could run on that treadmill and feel like a million bucks until it got super-boring.
When I showered, I got another bonus - plantar warts.
Yeah, no one ever told me that there was fungus in the locker room showers, and I needed to wear water shoes in such situations. That happy little fungus was all over my bare virgin flesh.
So the warts grew...and they grew enthusiastically...until I could no longer walk without limping. It was like tiny nails that grew into bigger nails, being driven into the nerves of my feet. When I had to wear crutches in the office, my boss recommended a foot doctor to me.
A month later, I treated myself again to a bout of foot surgery. There were ten plantar warts on both of my feet that needed to be removed, and the doctor did so swiftly. I was awake the entire time, and not so crazy about that part, but anything was worth the relief at that point.
The surgery worked. The doctor warned me that it might not, and today, there's still one tiny dormant plantar wart on the bottom of one foot, but it's never grown any larger in the last 20 years and doesn't hurt at all, so I don't mind it. Just glad they're gone.
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