Thursday, August 27, 2009

My nerves got the best of me

Today was my son's first day of preschool. I was a nervous wreck. Generally speaking, he doesn't separate from me very easily, so I was dreading a tear-filled good-bye. Apparently, that's not what I should've been worried about.

I have to get Grant there at about 8:30. I was very nervous - heart palpating, breathing shallow, slight shake. (There's a lot more to this than me just being worried about preschool. He has a speech delay, and was evaluated in June for Autism. Praise God, no Autism, but I get the feeling the school's not 100% convinced, hence my nerves!) It was very lightly raining - kind of a drizzle or sprinkle. You know, one of those times you'd wish it'd just rain and get on with things!

Anyway, we pull up, and parking is hard to find within a couple of blocks of the school. That displeases me, as we're running a tiny bit late and I have to lug my 22-month-old around, too. I spot a pretty long spot right in front of the school, where only parallel parking is available. (You can see where I'm going with this, can't you? If not, let's just say I don't normally do parallel parking ...) Having no other real options, I attempt to take the spot.

Bear in mind that this is a narrow street, and there's a full-sized school bus on my left. The spot I want is the second car in, so I have to maneuver with very little room around another car. That did not go well. As I'm pulling in, I hear the alarm go off on the car in the spot behind mine, followed by a scraping sound.

I muttered an F-bomb under my breath as I realized what that meant. (And, I must say, I'm quite proud of myself for keeping it so the kiddos couldn't hear it!)

First things first, I gotta drop the boy off. So, I get out and get the boy out of his seat, then proceed to the other side of the van - the side with the damage - and check it out briefly. Surprisingly, no dent or major damage - just scratches! Praise God, as it could've been MUCH worse! So, I get Natalie out and we head inside.

Grant shows me just how ready he is for preschool by dropping my hand the moment we enter the building. I was surprised - but happy. It must mean he's at least comfortable in the building! (He attended speech therapy there last spring, and we were there last night for the open house.) We go to the cafeteria, and he's fine. He was a little reluctant to let Natalie and me go, but his teacher held him and showed him the HUGE indoor playset they were going to be using in a few minutes. While he remained reluctant to let us go, no tears were shed!

Back outside go Natalie and I. The car I scraped is still there. I go look, and it's really not bad. Just the front driver-side fender, really. Unfortunately, though, both vehicles have scratches. Definite scratches. So, I wait with Natalie in the car, hoping the owner of that car comes out soon. (Natalie was a little upset by leaving "Dude" - her pet name for her brother - behind.) When they finally do come out, they get in the car and don't even notice anything. I feel EXTRA bad, because she is in tears - apparently her child didn't have as easy a drop-off.

After looking things over, I give them my insurance info. Come to find out, we have the same agent - hopefully that somehow works in our favor. (Thankfully, we did avoid involving the cops.) I apologize profusely, fighting back tears. We finally go on our merry - er, not-so-merry - way and I freak over how my husband will handle it. Our renewal is coming up in a couple of months - how will this affect our rates? He's gonna kill me!

You'd think that after being married to the man for 11 years I'd know him well enough to know I didn't have to be so worried. He was fine and understanding. Just told me to call insurance and get it settled. He closed with "Just don't make it a habit, OK?" LOL He made me laugh - I should've known he'd do that. That's his thing - breaking stress by making me laugh.

Pick-up time was at 11, and I decided to leave early in hopes that we get a better parking spot - with less trouble. It worked out. When picking Grant up, he was doing just fine. Didn't seem upset or anything - slightly concerned (probably wondering where they're going now), but not upset. I had to call his name a few times before he heard me. He was all smiles when he saw me. On the way back to our car, we ran into his teacher, who said he did great. When asked, he says he had fun, and when we ask what he did, he says "Play with friends." That makes me smile. Perhaps he most enjoyed playing with his peers, rather than his older and younger sisters - must be a nice change of pace.

As for the car, I took it in for an estimate - which was just shy of $1,800! Shocked me, especially since I was told the other car only had about $300 of damage. Thankfully, we have a low deductible - only $100. I also learned it'll take THREE DAYS! Fortunately, we also have rental-car costs covered. Praise God for insurance!

Now, I just pray our rate doesn't increase too much. This is our first accident of any sort in 11 years. Hopefully they take that into account!

So, I've learned a few things today:
  • Yes, my son will be OK without me.
  • There's a reason I generally don't do parallel parking.
  • While expensive, car insurance is DEFINITELY worth it!
  • I have an amazingly awesome, caring, understanding, and sweet husband. (Well, I already knew that - just needed a reminder.)
  • There's a reason I generally don't do parallel parking. (Yeah, I know, I already said that - but it's worth mentioning one more time!)

4 comments:

Laurie said...

Sending you some *hugs*. I'm sorry it was such a rough morning for you. I am happy to read that Grant had a good first day!

ham1299 said...

Thank you, Laurie!

Robyn W Privette said...

you poor thing. I can't imagine Hannah going to school. She doesn't go to preschool and won't (again, I use to be a teacher, hahaha) don't let that scare you ;) anyway... Kyla wasn't with me as much as Hannah is so it's going to be harder to separate from her... err... I mean for her to separate from me :D

ham1299 said...

I think the accident was good in that I wasn't able to wallow in my sadness over being separated from him. LOL Grant NEEDS preschool. And he's loving it, too! :-) We'll see with Natalie, though! ;-)

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...