What part of that did you think was a good idea?

How do I even begin?

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving, except that I spent less than 48 hours with my family as I had to come back here to continue studying. So when I left my family today I was already upset and a little ill that my first exam is scheduled for the Monday after Thanksgiving.

So there I am, driving, trying to get back to the interstate (my grandfather lives in a small town that you have to take all kinds of little back roads to get to) and on a fairly busy two lane road. I see an 18 wheeler up ahead of me -stopped-getting ready to make a left hand turn. There I sit waiting on him to turn when all the sudden I see his white reverse lights. What? On this busy two lane road you're backing up! Yep - he even had the beep so that you knew he was reversing. After I come to grips with the fact that he is REVERSING, I too, throw my car in reverse, but there are people behind me and I really can't go anywhere. I laid on my horn, but it wasn't working, the woman behind me was laying on her horn but that didn't seem to matter either! What was I going to do, nothing and he hit me! HIT ME!! He had gone too far up and couldn't make the turn without backing up slightly, so instead of going up and turning around, he decided he owned the road and would just back up in middle of the busy street. Smart.

Now let me explain, my dog and my car are my babies. Mess with either one and the normally non-confrontational Island girl, becomes pissed off Island girl and is ready to fight. Okay, so there he is, finally realizing that I'm back there, and he stops. I jump out of my car, look at the lady behind me in disbelief and slowly make my way to the front of my car to survey the damage. Yep, right there on the front of my bumper - deep, black scratches on my beige paint job. My poor baby :(

The man gets out of his cab, comes back to where I am and says "Did I hit you?" SERIOUSLY!? Okay, so I'm livid and about ready to hit his man when he turns and goes back to his truck. The woman behind me was yelling that he better not drive away, and that we should move into the parking lot of a conveniently located gas station adjacent to this fiasco. So we do. ~Please keep in mind that his is like small town America and so news travels fast and everyone is stopping "to get gas" and see the goings on~

I call my Daddy, she called the cops and then I have round two with moron truck driver. I don't know where he was from originally, but he didn't speak English very clearly and his name had about 50 letters in it, so communication was difficult to say the least - didn't help the anger level, let me tell ya. Once in the parking lot, he comes over looks at my bumper and says, "Oh, just needs some paint." At this point the patience level is non-existent, so I respond,

"Are you kidding me? This looks like it just needs paint? Really? I don't know how many people you're backed into but this is not just a paint job. It's going to need a new bumper, and you better have insurance to cover it because if you don't, we're going to have a serious problem. And since I have witnesses that saw it was clearly your fault the police should have no problem writing a report that says so."

I don't like being mean to people, I really don't but he had been so nonchalant about the whole think that I just couldn't take it. When he found out we had called the police he got really nervous and asked "Why'd you do that?" That made me even more suspicious of the whole thing.

As if I didn't have better things to do, I sat in the parking lot of the Jet Pep for 45 minutes waiting on the state trooper. He finally arrived took all of our info and witness statements, and 45 minutes after that he came over, explained all the forms I had to fill out and told me I was free to go. I asked him, per my Dad's request, what the accident report was going to say in terms of who's at fault (I mean I didn't see how it was me, but it's always better to clear these things up before the cop leaves). He said, "Well, I'm writing it as he backed into an unidentified vehicle. (Hey, I'll help you out there - it was ME) and that he should have gone up and turned around instead of reversing in the street." Hold on though, here's the kicker:

The idiot's official defense: "I didn't actually back up, I didn't go in reverse."

WHAT THE HECK?! YOU'RE FREAKING REVERSE LIGHTS WERE ON AND YOU WERE BEEPING! WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T BACK UP? WHAT DID I DO RUN INTO MYSELF?

Now, it's a very good thing that he didn't give me that piece of crap story cause I would have gone nuclear. Anyway, I'm home now, with a scratched car and homework. All you can do is laugh...