I Almost Died Vol. 2

The first car that was ever fully mine (not shared with my mom like the purple intrepid) was a gold 2001 Ford Explorer.  A few weeks into driving the explorer, I was on my way to give blood.  I took a left turn and got hit in the front and it spun me around.  Nothing crazy traumatic; They were speeding.  No one was harmed; they were trying to blame me for dents in their hood on the opposite side of where they hit me.  It ended up being their fault (I think), and I ended up giving blood later that week.  That's not the incident I wanted to tell you about today.  The next time I almost died was a few years later.

I lived in Cordova, TN with a few friends and I was working at Republic Coffee in Memphis.  At this point I had mostly opening shifts which means I was charged with the distinct pleasure of waking up at an ungodly hour of the morning to caffeinated midtown Memphis.  My drive to work was normally about 30-40 minutes depending on traffic, and mostly all on this interstate.  I had to be at work at 5am to open up at 6.


This was during the winter, and normally Memphis winters are cold, but not crazy cold and everyone loses their minds when it snows because it happens so rarely.  This was an icy morning, so I was taking it slow on the way to work (I learned my lesson!). Even though waking up at 4 was part of my regular routine, I had a tendency of staying up too late.  In fact, sometimes when I got to work, I would turn the espresso machine on, brew coffee, count the drawer, unlock the door, and lay down in a booth and take a short nap because it was rare that anyone came in before 6:30 and the sound of the squeaky door normally woke me up. So I was easily 3/4 asleep on this particular drive at 4am.  I was heading west on I-40, and there was only a handful of cars on the interstate.

Up ahead of me on the right was a car going as slow as I was.  This section of I-40 was 4 lanes.  I was in the middle left and the other car closest to me was in the middle right minding our own business when, on my left, another car, who for some reason, was flying down the icy interstate at 4 in the morning passed us both.  It startled me, but nothing crazy yet, just your run of the mill asshole nothing to worry about.

A few miles down the road I notice something strange, and sure enough, It was our friend from earlier. He was in the left lane spinning around (very similarly to how I was spinning in the last story).   So I start to slow down even further, however the car ahead of me on the right decided to speed up and get over to the furthest right lane to avoid the guy on the left.  Poor choice... They start to spin out in the far right lane.

So at this point, I'm going about 30 mph, and gripping my steering wheel like somehow, that's going to help me get through this safely.  I can't remember what I was listening to, it was probably Tenacious D or Saul Williams or something loud so I would stay awake on the way to work.  Either way, I am wide eyed, death grip on the wheel, and I just slowly drive past both cars spinning on either side of me.  It all happened so fast and I was not fully awake so it was one of those moments where I didn't even think about what to do and just defaulted to hold on, take it slow, and hope that neither car comes out of the spin to crash into my car and kill everyone involved.

Both cars continued to spin for almost the whole time I could see them in my rear view mirror.  Needless to say I have never been more wide awake for the drive to work in my entire life, and I definitely didn't take a nap when I got into work.  I lived to barista another day, and all was well.

Whew.... I got anxiety just writing about that.

Have you almost died on the road?  Leave a comment below!  I want to hear about it.

Garry Potter: The Pup Who Lived

I've always had a dog or dogs in or near my life.  Pinky was our first dog, then came Chief, Honey (who became Steve) and Duke.  Those were all family dogs.  The first dog I owned after that was Carol.  Andrew (my best friend and roommate) and I adopted a german sheppard puppy and named her Carol.  Were we the best dog parents?  Probably not.   We loved her though.  She wasn't the smartest dog in the world, and she was goofy as all get out.  When we moved out we were both moving to places that couldn't accomodate a German sheppard so now she became a farm dog and is frolicking in a field in north Mississippi, happy as could be.

The next puppy to enter my life came accidentally.  I was working at Republic Coffee (RIP) and a clean, fluffy, adorable puppy with no collar was just wondering around the patio.  Those who know the area know that this is not a safe place for a cute little puppy to be roaming about.  I took her inside to everyone to ask if she was there's.  Nope.  So I took her home, put up posters the next few days and luckily no one responded to the posters because I immediately fell in love with this little nugget.   Luckily my roommate at the time (Lisa) was ok with living with this adorable little monster.

When it came time for me to move accross the country, I knew I wouldn't have time or money to keep her, so I diligently searched for a new home for Lucie.  Graciously my friends in Denton, TX (which so happen to be my first stop on the move to Seattle) agreed to love Lucie, so she found a happy new home.  Interestingly enough Lucie lives in Memphis again with Megan and Daniel and who just added a new beautiful human puppy to their family.

The picture I sent to Dana

So after 4 years in Seattle living in places that couldn't accomodate dog, we finally moved into the artist Reformation house and were determined to get a dog.  I say we, but I think I was probably more motivated than Dana.  So I started digging into the interwebs, visiting animal shelters, and watching puppy videos on YouTube.  One day I was at work, and was clearing my head from working on the schedule and so I was looking at adopt puppy websites.  KONA popped up.  I immediately took a picture of the computer screen and sent it to Dana with something along the lines of "OMG OMG OMG OMG".   The next day we were took Kona home from the Seattle Humane Society.

At the Artist Reformation house we had 7 people living there so coming up with a name for Kona was fun because for a few days we just kept throwing names around.  We finally settled on one of Dana and my original ideas of Garry Potter.  (Pizza was the 2nd place finish)

his best human friend Hannah

his best dog friend Mercy

Ever since then Garry has been a constant source of entertainment, love, 
kisses, frustrations, late nights, and having to buy more socks and underwear.  He has a best human friend and a best dog friend.  He is a super smart and really goofy little dude.  It's been a whirlwind for sure.  Garry is the first dog that I really felt was a part of my family and not just a creature that I was responsible for.  I think it's because sometimes I want to murder him for being such a little jerk, but I don't, because I love him.  We let him into our bed in the morning for family cuddle time. We put goofy costumes on him.  He's a member of a Canine Social Club.

One of my favorite things that he does from time to time goes like this:  I get home super late from closing the restaurant.  Out of our room moseys half-asleep Garry Potter.  Sleepily wagging his tail, he walks up to me, I pet his head, and then he turns right back around and gets back in bed with Dana (he sleeps up there until I put him in his own bed when I get home).   There is way more enthusiastic greetings that I get from him on a daily basis, but it's this one that sticks out in my mind.  This sleepy "hey, glad you're home.  I'm going back to bed now"  is the best for sure.

Did this post have a real point or deeper meaning?  Not really, I just love our dog.  Even if he barks at anything that moves outside our gate or has a humping issue at the dog park, or kicks me right in the nuts on occasion.

He's a pretty fantastic pup.