I don't believe I've had a near-death experience. I've been in a few car accidents, but none of them were serious enough that I feared for my life.

This weekend I'll be getting a haircut and hiking on some local trails behind a botanical garden to see if the trout lilies are out yet.

How I love this dress. Love the color and the reverse print lining-- it's just so adorably springlike.

Oh, that's gorgeous.

That is a fabulous dress, Barb. Could you alter the sleeves?

Ooh, sounds great Calli. I need to get out and do some hiking.

Dear Barb -

If you buy me that dress, I will carry out the vengence wish of your choice.

Yours in love with that dress,
Aims

I was in a car accident that totaled the car when I was 23. I was driving, ran a red light (by mistake, lost in a new city), and got hit on the driver's side by a pickup truck. The impact was at the rear wheel; if it had been 4-6 feet more to the front of the car I probably would have been seriously hurt, but as it was I just had a seatbelt bruise. I distinctly recall seeing the truck coming and knowing he was going to hit me - it was like time slowed down - and I stepped on the gas, and that's what kept me from being hurt. Long-term effects? I still don't drive. I don't appreciate life any more, though.

I was also held up at gunpoint when I was 25. I think the risk of fatal injury was rather less there. My grandfather asked me if I was going to stop voting democratic, on the theory that "a Republican is a Democrat who's been mugged," but, nope.

Huh. I was all gronkified this morning, so I had some more coffee. Now I'm wired. So I feel really talkative. But I'm all caught up on my blogs, so I'll now have to think of stuff to post about....

ita, the only one of those brands I've used is OPI, but I hear the first one is good.

I want to figure out who near me carries Nubar, because I want this set: [link] and for ita (though it might be too many shades on a theme) [link]

I just order from Nubar. Shipping winds up being free if you order over $75 worth of stuff, btw. (I ordered my topcoat bulk from them.) I have that whole set, and backups for two of the colors (Wildlife and Reclaim). Nubar is probably my favorite brand, but they don't have sales as often as Zoya.

Scrangie.com should have some good swatches of the browns, ita.

I'm loving the OPI blues! I wish I could paint my own. I'm too shaky handed to do it right. So I end up going wayyyy to long between manicures and I my nails always look a little trashy, I think.

My hands are constantly shaky, but practice has it so I get a fairly neat manicure almost every time. And there are a lot of great clean up tutorials on the web that can show you how to fake mad application skillz.

Also? EXCELLENT NEWS! YAY, BOB!

Wow. Were you injured in any of them?

the first I was a passenger in a suburban and we were hit by a semi truck. i was not buckled in and was thrown inside the car. I had some bad bruises and it compressed a vertebrae that seems to have righted itself over the years.

the second I was driving and was similar in respects to both flea and Liese's. I was broadside hit on the driver's side, but it hit right behind my seat so not a direct impact. I was in a seatbelt then, so was not thrown. It did smoosh a slushie I had put between the front seats and resulted in red splatter all over my front which freaked the first responders right out. I had bruises and pinpricks from windshield glass all over my legs.

the last I was a passenger in a teeny 2 seater thingy and we were hit head on by a NY taxi. It was quite a jolt, but as we were both just pulling away from stop signs, it wasn't enough speed to be really dangerous.

all in all, me = lucky.

That is a fabulous dress, Barb. Could you alter the sleeves?

Hmm... the cap sleeves are so shallow and my shoulders so wide, it might almost look like a very wide-strapped dress on me. Which I would be okay with. I just hate when they just dip over the slope of my shoulders because it's just not a Good Look on me. Love my wide shoulders, but there are times it presents a bit of a fashion challenge.

If you buy me that dress, I will carry out the vengence wish of your choice.

It would almost be worth it just to see you go totally medieval on your uncle.

Yeah, I had that bad wreck in Sedona. Totaled both cars, the mechanic said that as bad as the damage was, we should have been killed. It shook up the SO worse than me, I think, since I was on the side of the impact. Hit so hard that it knocked my glasses off

I got t-boned on the driver's side by an ambulance. t edit (Like Liese and flea and msbelle, except it hit the driver's side front-seat door [aka, me] dead center.) My car was a compact car (a Pontiac LeMans), and when I went to the junkyard(?) to get my stuff out of the car a few days later, I realized that the impact had shoved the driver's side bucket seat over into the passenger side hard enough that the passenger seat was pressed into the door.

I completely lost my glasses in that crash -- the driver's side window was closed before I got hit, and then when I regained consciousness I realized that a policeman was talking to me through an open space where the window should be. I assume that when the window shattered my glasses flew out.

Anyway, nothing happened to me in the crash other than some cuts and bruises. I have no idea how that's possible, given how smooshed my car was and how far it travelled after it got hit by the ambulance (~200 feet, maybe).

And the car was totalled.

t edit again How it hit me -- how I didn't notice an ambulance coming for me is a simple story: there was an accident at the next light up, and traffic was stopped in the direction I was going (eastbound). So I got in the middle (turning) lane to turn left across the westbound lane into a parking lot so that I could go back the other way.

When I turned left, crossing the westbound lane (which was empty, since westbound traffic was also stopped by the aforementioned accident), I didn't look left, because why would someone be driving eastbound in the westbound lane (i.e., illegally)? But I forgot about the whole ambulances-can-be-wherever-they-need-to-be thing.

I think they ambulance had the siren off since they were so close to the accident that they needed to get to, and I started my left turn as they were pretty much right on me.