MONDAY CURRENTLY// VOL. 3

A more accurate title would be belated-Tuesday-currently but what can you do.
Anyway, carry on.

 R E A D I N G 

Everything I can on "There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane" -- due to a very near-miss this weekend (more in "Thinking"). Super morbid, yes. In the time since my last Sunday Currently I cashed Emily Giffen's "The One and Only" in about 3 days. I usually blindly worship anything she writes, but I was not impressed with this book. The writing was great, per usual, but the story line had me rage-texting Jess at various points. <<hmpf>>

 L I S T E N I N G 

Just finished listening to a semi-heated phone deposition. I think my problem is I get second hand embarrassed far too easily. This bodes well for my career, no?

 T H I N K I N G 

How unbelievably lucky M and I were on Sunday night as we were about 15 feet and 5 seconds away from being one of these cars:

Sunday night M and I were headed over to Lauren's for an impromptu visit to check out their new place, along with Jess and Syndal and their men. We were headed eastbound on 94 (for those familiar with the twin cities) and coming up on a curve in the freeway where my work exit actually is. 

M was driving, and I was glancing down at my phone at the map when I heard him gasp, felt the brakes, and I looked up to see a flash of tail lights and the first impact as several cars immediately in front of us began to crunch into each other. M made a split second decision to swerve right as he anticipated the pile up heading to the left, and he was right (as you can see by the photo, all the cars wound up on the interior of the freeway).  We were literally the first car following these people who did NOT crash. 

We pulled over on the shoulder, shaking and all around freaking out when I snapped back and realized that we needed to be the ones to call 9-1-1. I gave all the information to dispatch and M hopped out of the car and ran over to check on everyone since the freeway had come to a stand still. After finishing with 911, I got out of the car and was standing next to the car talking to a nurse who had pulled over- I saw the lights of a patrol car coming up on my side of the freeway when the second accident happened: a black jeep that had pulled over on the opposite side of the freeway on the interior shoulder was struck by a old pickup truck, which then fishtailed out and hit several other cars before coming to a rest. 

M saw more since he was driving and; after talking to some of the other witnesses; pieced together what had happened: the black jeep said he had called in the dark brown sedan (at the top of the photo behind the 2 men) for driving erratically on 94 westbound. He came upon the accident and recognized the car, which is why he pulled over. There's a curve in the road westbound that this woman apparently missed entirely, launched over the median and went airborne, before coming back down and facing oncoming traffic in our lane. M first saw her as she cut from left to right across all 4 lanes of traffic, bounced off the far side median, and then wound up drivers-side-perpendicular to traffic on our side, which is when she first got hit. It was honestly the scariest experience of my life and I can't believe we didn't hit anything. It goes to show the importance of paying attention and not tailgating, because if M had glanced at the radio for even a second - he may not have seen her when he did, and may not have had enough time to react. 

I received a call from the first state trooper on the scene yesterday, since I provided all my contact information to dispatch. He called and took M and I's statement for a "possible prosecution"- possible, because they're obviously still conducting an investigation. When asked whether everyone was ok, he told us all he could say is that "It looks like everyone will live." I know that of 2 of the 4 vehicles, everybody inside was talking and walking around. The man in the light tan car seemed very rattled but I believe got out of his car at some point and was "ok".. the woman who apparently caused the accident was breathing (according to the nurse) but M said it looked like she was in bad shape. So, we'll see if anything else comes of it.. I'm just glad it wasn't worse for everybody else involved. 


 W I S H I N G 

That this weekend was another 4 day weekend.

 L O V I N G 

that I'm feeling otherwise rested after a long weekend, and that we've settled on a paint color for the exterior updates. STAY TUNED for that! Hoping to get it done within the next week or 2.

 W A N T I N G 

Dinner. Depo prep got the best of me this morning and I had popcorn for lunch (super healthy, I know).

 F E E L I N G 

So grateful for an overall fantastic weekend. We attended Leah's beautiful wedding and reception, had friends over for dinner, went hiking at a state park with M's sister which was followed by lunch on a patio in Stillwater- easily one of my favorite places ever, still visiting with Lo and Jess and Syndal after the accident, and then had my brother over for dinner Monday night. It was the perfect mix of family and friends, and has me feeling recharged for the short week ahead. Some more snaps from the weekend:

I feel stupid and somewhat forced into the following disclaimer, which should be obvious- but I was obviously mindful of the reason for the 3-day weekend.. and as another blogger put it so eloquently, it was not a weekend to celebrate all service members. While it's a noble and important thing to want to celebrate, that's Veteran's Day. Yesterday was about paying respects to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice.. and who have paid for our freedom with their life. That reason was not lost on me- as I drove by Fort Snelling and looked out at the expanse of white tombstones, my grandfather among them. Fortunately he did not need to give his life in service to our country to be buried there, but I'm aware that so many are not so lucky. Thank you to those families who lend us their sons and daughters and parents and uncles so that we can enjoy the life we do.