My sister was in an accident that crushed all of the car except the driver's area. It took the rescue squad 45 minutes to cut her out. She's had back and neck problems ever since, but she walked away from it.

I had a close relationship with the late night ER staff when I was a teenager due to asthma problems. There was a set routine - go to the blue chair, check my vitals while mom registered me, then off to an exam room for a breathing treatment.

Then I had a bad attack and I don't even remember going to ER. I recall a sudden awareness of being in the big ER room with the bright lights that is only used for SERIOUS patients. That scared the heck out of me. Now that I look back, I hadn't been ventilated so it couldn't have been that bad.

I've also been in a car that was totalled going 5 miles an hour in a parking lot. KCD t-boned another car by mistaking the clutch for the break. He shifted the entire front end of the car and insurance totalled it.

Honestly, the event that freaked me out most was one where I would have been on the giving end if it had gone badly. I was going up the ramp in a parking garage (in a standard, which at the time I was shakey at best driving) and suddenly there's a little kid of about 7 running down the ramp towards me! I slammed on the brakes and managed to stop; he ran into me and knocked himself down. He hit his head, and was scared and crying, but his dad was right there. Apparently he'd decided to race his dad to the car (against dad's wishes). He was shaken up, but OK - the dad didn't even wan't to file anything on it. I had to sit for 15 or minutes or so until I could stop shaking enough to drive.

Didn't a Buffista run themselves over somehow?

Cindy, I think.

While pregnant, if memory serves.

The nearest death incident I remember wasn't my death, but was when we were out for coffee and I saw a car start to back over a toddler (while an adult stood right by it). I jumped out of my seat and grabbed the kid, but I was weirded out for the longest time. I couldn't believe what I had almost stared right at, and how no one else closer to the incident was paying any attention.

On a lighter subject, I've begun doing my nails. I found, at a discount store, a couple of the OPI for Nicole "Nic Sticks" - nail polish in a kind of pen (with a brush applicator). The one I have on now is Vio-Let's Go!, which is kind of silvery blue violet, but it keeps changing ... and in sunlight it's almost a champagne color.

The nearest death incident I remember wasn't my death, but was when we were out for coffee and I saw a car start to back over a toddler (while an adult stood right by it). I jumped out of my seat and grabbed the kid, but I was weirded out for the longest time. I couldn't believe what I had almost stared right at, and how no one else closer to the incident was paying any attention.

Yikes! That particular scenario pings me because my friend Robin lost her sister that way. A truck backed over her when she'd stepped off the curb briefly.

I think I'm out of work for the day. Not good.

Yikes! That particular scenario pings me because my friend Robin lost her sister that way. A truck backed over her when she'd stepped off the curb briefly.

Oh god, that's horrible!

I'm amazed I hit the brakes in time, because I could not process what was happening at first. It just seemed to break all assumptions about parking garages I'd been living under.

I work with someone who knows a NYC ME and he asked the ME once if he had learned anything about staying safe in the city since he saw so many causes of death. He said, stay on the sidewalk.

Once I was driving in a small Wisconsin town and a kid on a bike crossed the street right in front of me. I slammed on the brakes in time. The kid continued across the street, where a woman coming the other direction slammed on her brakes just in time. She yelled at him too, so I didn't have to.