This has been a day... quite a day... rather a long day indeed... busy day, but a day nonetheless. I feel like my head is STILL spinning. Arrrrhhhh.

This LJ entry will not be in chronological order, because I don't feel like organizing it that much. So let's start with my car. I've left multiple voicemails over the past few days for the darn claim rep at the other insurance company. I've just wanted to know what the heck was up with my car. Had someone looked at it? Should I take it to one of their shops? Etc. etc. The jerk never called me back. So today I kept hitting "0" to get out of his voicemail and every time I'd get a real person on the phone, they'd tell me that they couldn't help me and that I'd have to talk to my rep. One gal immediately assumed that I was the other driver and told me that the shop was already paid for her repairs. Nice. They paid her repairs TWO DAYS AGO and yet cannot be bothered to call me back in a timely manner? WTF! I was so mad and finally left a really angry message. Funny how I did that and less than five minutes later my phone rang and it was the claim rep. Grrr!

He wasn't very helpful at all! All he told me was that my car is going to be declared a total loss. Now he has to wait for the estimate from the 14th and the values for the car and then he'll get back to me in "a day or two"! Ha. Sure he will. I'm so sad that my car's going to be declared a total! I looooove that vehicle and have only had it one year! I don't know what we'll do about replacing it. We need another car somehow because Ron's car is on its last legs and the Neon is without brakes and has many issues with starting. Plus it doesn't have a working radio, etc. etc. etc. I guess we'll have to see what they offer me for the car and maybe we can find a cheap clunker to drive around. *sigh* Bye-bye my little Ford. I shall miss you.

Work itself has been crazy since the moment I walked in this morning! I feel like screaming! haha.

But I tasted a sip of heaven this morning! Our little company store and cafeteria have started carrying those pre-bottled Caribou Coffee iced coffees. So this morning I tried the "Iced Coffee Plus Espresso." Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. That was so good! I think I want another! It's too hot in here for heated coffeee, although it's beyond cold outside. (ok, someone slap me... I almost typed "it's wicked cold outside" and that just cannot happen! I refuse to use "wicked" in that manner!) That's it... I definitely need caffeine! Bye!

Remember my friend Lisa that I've talked about? The one with the brain tumor and all that horrible health stuff the poor gal has had to go through? Well, they're having a fundraiser for her tonight and in connection to that there was an article in yesterday's Daily Record. The article can be found HERE! Unfortunately I just don't have the funds at this time to be able to afford a ticket or two. And there's so much going on around here, that I just can't get there tonight. The timing bites. I have a form that can be completed to send a donation so I'm going to do that as well as send Lisa a card to apologize for not making it tonight. Her birthday is next month, so I also want to try and save up to send her something special. (If anyone else wants to send a donation, let me know and I can mail or fax a copy of the donation form as well. Please don't feel any pressure to do so, I just thought I'd throw that out there in case someone has money they're itching to donate.)

I think my mom and Gary may be going to the event tonight. I hope they do. If I lived in the area and had no dogs to deal with and didn't have an awful pain in my back and didn't have to go get my contacts tonight and if I had the money, I'd definitely go too. Yes, they sound like excuses, but it's so hard to get home and then take the dogs out and change and then get back here by 7. Ah well.

My mom just emailed me and said that with the 300+ people that are already going, she and my step-dad are going to bow out and send a check instead. I have a feeling that Lisa is going to be very overwhelmed with it all as it is. I'm just so happy that they've had such a great response!

I don't think the insurance gal looked at my car yesterday. I'm so annoyed. This is going on long enough and I need something done about it right away! If I don't hear back by lunch, I'm going to give the adjuster a call and find out what's up.

My back is really hurting today. I don't know if it's still from the accident or just from sleeping on it wrong, but either way, OUCH!

Hmm. I haven't heard a peep from the claims adjuster yet. I wonder if she ever managed to find my house to go look at the car. Probably not. She's probably still driving around Hewitt/West Milford going crazy. No one ever seems to be able to find us the first time around without directions. And sometimes with directions folks still get lost. We're way out in no man's land, that's for sure. No one ventures out that far unless they HAVE to. haha.

It's been a pretty good day so far. The company's activities department gave everyone a little Valentine's gift. It's a travel coffee mug and they filled each one with Hershey's kisses. Wasn't that a cute idea? It has the SF logo on one side and on the other it has a heart and says "Happy Valentine's Day." I think last year they brought around candy bars, but this mug is cooler!

Ron got home late last night and then crashed on the couch. He was still snoring away when I went up to bed. Today I think he's scheduled 10-8 or 11-9. I can never get those mid-shifts straight... probably because he usually ends up working later than scheduled anyway. But it's no big deal today considering there'll be no Valentine's gift for me this year (or the next ten!) because I bought myself the camera last month. Speaking of which... I'm rather annoyed with mean ol' Mama Nature! The weather has pretty much sucked since I got the camera and I'm too afraid to take it outside in really bad weather, so I haven't had a chance to use it. I love winter, but this year I'm eager for spring so I can play with my camera! I want to go all over the place taking pictures. Not that there's much in NJ to photograph, but I'll find stuff. And without a job, I won't be tied down to only evening/weekend hours. wee hooooooooooo.

ho hum. I feel stuck... On 90% of my work today I'm stuck waiting on someone else to return a phone call or email and I can't do a darn thing until they get back to me! And some are just so obnoxious and almost seem to be saying that they don't want to be bothered doing their job! ugh. People! Well, actually it's just one guy that's annoying me like that. See I'm trying to get to the bottom of a problem for someone else, and I have to contact this other guy and every time I do, he gives me attitude about how he has to get in touch with someone outside the company. So? Then he never returns my calls to tell me what's going on and every day the guy that I'm trying to help is on the phone trying to figure out why *I'm* not getting back to him with an answer. So then I have to try and track down the mean dude and today he just asked me "what's the rush?" Hello!? This has been going on for 3 weeks now! What rush? Ughhhhhhhhh! Jerk.

It took me an hour and 45 minutes to get to work this morning! That's how bad the roads were! It's been raining all day, which makes it messy on top of all the snow and ice. Yuck.

Today Pam took Toni Ann and me out to Eccola's for lunch. Mmm... so good! Alex wasn't able to join us because he had a meeting in South Jersey and Teri ended up canceling too because her kids had their school close for the day. So it was just the three of us. I absolutely love their food. Mmm!

Toni Ann seems to be looking forward to her return to work. So guess there will be no pardon by the Governor in my last hours here. haha.

Ron's work was out of power this morning when he went in. A generator blew or something. He said they could see actual sparks exploding behind the Wal-Mart that is near him. All the businesses in that stretch of route 23 were without power. He didn't get it back until after 1:00 p.m. Yikes! Why don't I ever get the luck of having my work lose power? haha.

I spoke to the other Insurance Company today for my accident and the gal is going out to look at the car in the morning. So I'll have to clear off all the snow tonight. I don't think either Ron or I will be there in the morning when she comes out to the house, but she said she didn't need us to be there. So we'll see how that goes.

I am so ready to go home, but I don't want to drive. Can't someone just beam me up? haha

Happy Monday peoples! Hahaha. Right. Although it hasn't been TOO bad of a Monday... yet. It sure went quickly, that's for sure! Of course there's still enough time left in the day for everything to flip on its head!

Ron went to the police department and picked up the police report for my accident. I had him fax it to me so that I could get everything going for the claim. I contacted the other company (and thank HEAVENS ABOVE that it was NOT GEICO!) and the other driver had already started the claim process. Phew. That'll help a bit. I faxed the police report over to the claims adjuster and provided my information. I'm a little annoyed with the police report though... it said that I'm driver two and in the report it says "Driver two stated..." They never once asked ME what happened. So how can they claim *I* stated anything when they took all the details from the other driver and how the cars were situated. Oh well. It's pretty much what I would have said, just termed differently. And it clearly shows that the other driver is at fault. So that's a good thing. I contacted Enterprise to get the rental transferred over to bill the insurance company. Of course there's always a chance they won't FULLY pay for it. Darn insurance companies! haha. But here's hoping that they do. They're going to send someone out to write up an estimate soon. Hopefully this will get it all moving quickly. Ron was supposed to work on the Neon today too in the hopes that we can get it working and then I can return the rental. I'm not sure though that I want to go back to such a tiny car after using the wagon for so long. I'm going to feel like a moving target in that itty bitty thing. Oh and in funny coincidences... the gal driving the other car lives almost right next door to Ron's brother!

I was going to send my Secret Valentine her gift this morning, but whoops... I forgot to bring it with me this morning! Grrr. Bad me. But I'm going to send it out from the post office tomorrow morning at 7:30 via priority mail, so that should possibly still make it by Valentine's day... if not it'll only be a day off. Yeah, I just thought I'd take my turn at being late on sending stuff. hehe. I'm getting bad at it lately. Silly me. :-)

Whoops! And in more "silly me" stuff. I started this 40 minutes ago or so and then my attention wandered and I forgot to post it. Duh. Well, not much happened between then and now, so I guess I'll go ahead and post it and be done with it. I don't think there's anything else worth mentioning. Hmm. Nope. Nothing. Buh-bye!

Well I saw the doctor and he told me that it was smart to come see him, but he pretty much just told me to load up with either Ibuprofen or Extra Strength Tylenol and to put ice on my knee and heat on my back and neck. He suggested a hot tub, but alas, I do not have one!

Ron and I did go to Enterprise and picked up a car. Unfortunately without knowing the other gal's insurance company, they have to hold it on my credit card until I call them on Monday. (I didn't get her info because the cops purposely kept us apart and told me to wait until Monday for the police report.) The more I think of it, the more annoyed I am with the police. They never asked me if I wanted medical attention. I don't know what I would have said at that point being as shaky as I was, but shouldn't they have offered? Anyway, we went over to the Enterprise near the tiny airport in town. Cute area! And I got a 2007 Dodge Caliber. That's the same car I had in Minnesota when I went last year, but this one is silver where that one was red. I love it!

Jeff's coming over in a bit with a battery charger. Ron and I had spent a bunch of time outside earlier trying to get the Neon's battery jumped, but it wouldn't hold the charge. Jeff's going to look at my car and see what he thinks. It really doesn't look bad, but if the radiator is punctured like Ron thinks, that's not a cheap fix. Plus the hood mechanism is shot and won't open so it's going to cost some moolah just to get the darn thing up! Not to mention the nose is busted. Ah well, what fun.

Each minute that passes I get more and more stiff and achy. I have this weird headache that won't go away. It moves a bit from the back to the front and back again. My right knee is aching. My neck and back are so tight that it's almost painful, but more uncomfortable than anything. I think in the next few hours it'll all really hit me and then I don't want to be me! lol

( 2 Cell Phone photos )

I'm home at the moment and I'm not sure what to do really. I had a car accident this morning. I was on my way to work and some ditzy blonde chick pulled out to make a left turn in front of me and I slammed on the brakes, but there wasn't enough space to stop and I slid right into her. I was on Union Valley Road and the road Y's at that spot. I had my left blinker on to bear to the left which is the road pattern. The gal was coming off of the other part of the Y with a STOP SIGN! She pulled right out without paying attention I guess. Even the cop commented that she'd failed to yield to the right of way. So that's going to be on the police report which I can get on Monday morning. But I have to wait until then and have no car in the meantime! Of course it was pouring rain out too so it couldn't happen on a nice day when it's not so bad to stand outside. Grr. I called the cops and then called my boss to let her know I'd be late and why. I tried calling Ron but he didn't answer the phone.

The police came and had us move our cars into a parking lot to get us out of the intersection. The main cop was really nice about everything. I was just stunned and numb and rather calm surprisingly. The cop took our paperwork and yadda yadda. The girl was driving a white VW Jetta or something similar. So she didn't stand a chance against my Ford Taurus wagon. Her front quarter panel was pushed in against her tire. My car doesn't APPEAR too bad... the grill is broken and there's a crack and dent and stuff. But appearances aren't everything. Once the cops said it was ok to go, I started up my car and it was making a grinding noise and a squeaking noise. So I hesitated about going to work because what if I couldn't get home? so I drove it home, but the one light is not working and my turn signal seems to be stuck in the 'on' position.

I woke Ron up and we were outside looking at the car for awhile. The hood won't open at all. Ron peeked through the area where the grill is busted and said that it appears as if the radiator is punctured. I thought I had smelled antifreeze too when I started driving it home from the accident.

I'm starting to feel rather stiff. At the time of accident, I was more shook up than anything else, but I think the shock is slowly starting to wear off as my body comes to terms with what happened.

I don't really have money to put out to rent a car right now. I know that her insurance company should pay for it, but between now and when they reimburse for it, that makes things tough. The Neon is in non-working order so I can't even switch to that car! And Ron's hours are horrible this week so we can't even commute together if we happened to be in the same direction.

Ughhh. I don't know what to do and Ron's no help. lol I just keep thinking that if I hadn't stopped at Dunkin Donuts I would have been a few minutes ahead of myself and would have missed the whole thing. Ah well. Accidents happen.

Now I need to figure out what to do about a car and whether I should go to work today or make a doctor's appointment to check things out. Hmm...

* ETA: 10:54. I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon at 12:45. I called my boss to let her know I won't be in today. She was very nice about it. I'm definitely stiff and feeling a bit sore in my right knee. I also have a headache in the back of my head. not fun... Plus I can already tell that my back is going to be really sore come morning. oh what fun. Still need to figure out what to do about a rental!

Ooh another virtual gift has been bestowed upon me! Thank you coreyann for the virtual diploma!

I tried on my cap, gown and hood today. (Still needs to be ironed!) The gown is way too short and fits like crap. I hate those "one size fits most" things. Sheesh. The cap definitely will NOT stay on my head without massive amounts of duct tape or something. ha-ha. The hood... well, that's a problem in itself. I have NO clue how to put that darn thing on. I read the instructions ten times and it was like they were speaking another language. The hood on the diagram looks nothing like the so-called hood thing they gave me. Why do they call them "hoods" anyway, when they are just some weird scarf doughnut thing? I have no clue. I really do not want to do the whole shebang on Tuesday. What a pain in the tooshy it is going to be.

This morning Ron and I did more yard work as we tried to make the yard look more presentable. We also put the patio table together and it is really nice. I like it! The chairs are comfy and the umbrella is really cool. I'm glad we got it.

Ron sent me to the deli earlier to pick up a few things and when I was leaving the deli, this lady in an SUV was parked illegally so that her rear end was blocking the majority of the exit. As I went to pass her, I thought I had enough clearance, but nope. I hit her car. Well, scraped it actually. It left a nice amount of her paint on the Ford and I scratched off the paint on the back corner of hers. Lovely. Fortunately she was really nice about the whole thing (although she should be because she parked like an ass). So no insurance companies will be involved. She's just going to get an estimate and let me know and we'll go from there. She said she can't see it being too expensive and she'll go the cheapest way possible for me. Of course she says that now and who knows if her story will change down the road. I'd like to have faith that she'll be nice and won't even do anything, but people suck and I'm sure she'll call me with an obnoxious estimate for repairs. Ah well. Stupid thing is, if I had taken the Neon, I would have fit ok through the exit. The station wagon was perhaps half an inch too big, if that. I wasn't even going to try to fit through, but I sat and waited for her to move for a good five minutes and when she didn't, that's when I tried to get around her. There's only one exit to the parking lot. Ugh. Ah well, what can you do? These things happen.

My grandma just called me. She's at my mom's house. She said she had a good flight and the plane had 20 college students that were on their way to Germany. I guess they take the small flight to Newark and then take a major one over that way. Grandma had a blast with the kids, she said. What fun. No one invited me over tonight, so I guess I won't see her until tomorrow for Mother's Day. Mom said to come over at noon, but I'll probably go a little later so that I can spend the morning with Ron trying to get this place shaped up a bit more. I cleaned the downstairs and upstairs bathrooms earlier, and have the rugs in the washer now. I've also straightened up a bit of the bedroom, but Ron's side is up to him to pick up. He's messy, messy, messy!

He's closing tonight and so won't be home until probably 3 a.m. Fun fun fun. Then he closes tomorrow and Monday nights. Those two nights he usually doesn't get home until after 4:00 a.m. because of the reports that he has to do after the restaurant closes for the night. So he's going to have fun trying to get up Tuesday to come to graduation. I have to leave here at 9:00 to get to the school that morning. Ugh. I wish they'd do these things in the evening. That would work much better for me. I think they're still predicting scattered Thunderstorms for that day too and showers on Wednesday. Of course those forecasts can change in a moment. So we'll see how the weather holds. Today was lovely. Yesterday was a little on the "too warm" side, but today was pretty nice.

Ok, time to take Rogue outside. Off I go...

Oh no! Ron's brother, Jeff, was in a really bad car accident tonight. Ron's mon just called to fill him in and she was in tears as she talked to Ron. He could barely understand what she was saying. We were able to get a little bit of details. Jeff was coming home from work and was driving down Berkshire Valley Rd. He was slowing up to make the right turn onto his street when he was slammed from behind. The cops say that the gal that hit him was driving at least 60 mph and never hit her brakes! The speed limit there is 35 or 40 mph. Jeff was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and he can't move. He can move his fingers and stuff like that but he can't sit up or anything. It sounds really serious. They just now took him in for X-rays, so more won't be known until he gets out of that.

Ron had me scared because he was on the phone and he kept saying "oh no. This isn't good. Oh no." And he looked like he was going to burst into tears himself. He managed to mouth to me that Jeff was in an accident and with the way he was looking and sounding, I immediately feared the worst. Ron's mom is supposed to call us back after the X-Rays are done to let us know just how serious it is. I'm hoping it's nothing too major. Back injuries can be very painful even when they're not so serious so I'm hoping it's a simple "fix".

I can't believe the stupidity of the girl that hit him! How the heck do you drive 20 or more miles per hour OVER the speed limit on that road? It's a curvy, winding, hilly road so it's not like it's a straight shot. She must have been completely oblivious to not see a car with it's brake lights and blinker on. Dumb broad. It's chicks like her that give women a bad rep as drivers.

Well this has been quite a morning already. I got rear-ended on my way
in to work this morning. I was on route 23 and it was stop & go
traffic. The van in front of me stopped suddenly and I managed to stop
with a foot or so to spare and then I glanced into my rear view mirror
and just *knew* that the pickup behind me was not going to stop in time.
I knew right. He hit me. He couldn't have been going too fast so it
wasn't a big crash. We both pulled over to the side of the road and it
turned out to be my across-the-street neighbor! We looked at our
vehicles and shockingly enough, there was NO damage at all to my car.
Not even a scratch. His truck is so much bigger than my tiny Neon that
I had expected to get out of the car and find the back end all smooshed
in. Under all other circumstances I would have been on the phone
calling the police so fast to file a report but since he was the first
neighbor that had welcomed us to the area and he's always been so nice
and has helped Ron with the roof issues and things, I went against my
cynical side. I said all was well and we went on our merry ways. I
looked at my car again when I got to work and had Cindy look too and we
both agreed that there is no damage at all. However he hit me, it was a
lucky hit and didn't do anything to my car. Thank heavens. The stupid
sun glare is a pain in the tushy in the morning. It's no wonder that an
accident occurred. Stupid sun! This is why I always prefer dreary,
rainy days to drive into work.

I forgot to wear green today. Bad me. I forgot it was St. Patrick's
day when I got up this morning. The Irish in me is so disappointed in
myself.

Well this day should go quickly. I have the 2nd session of the class to
teach this afternoon. So that will be nice. I am so glad that the
weekend is almost here. I have to finish reading my Geology chapter
today and then some time by Sunday I have to write this week's paper for
Sociology. Fun stuff.