I just started to pull ahead from a stoplight when I saw a car cross traffic to turn left and get hit. It was my immediate reaction to stop and try to help. It happened right in front of me and couldn't go anywhere (if I had wanted to) so I parked my car and ran to assess the situation.
I asked about the driver (in the white car) that hit the green truck who was crossing traffic. Apparently she was fine and walking around and already making calls so I was checking the driver in the green truck. My first instinct was to check for injuries (none) and try to calm the driver down. A gentleman stopped so I asked him to call 911 and then help me get the green truck off the main road. I still did what I could to keep the girl calm and still just in case she was injured.
Once the officers and paramedics arrived I checked with the other driver and made my statement. I could have left but I asked the girl in the green truck if she wanted me to stay while waiting for her mom. She appreciated it and so I stayed. She was scared and very upset and for someone so young, it's terrifying. I've never been in an accident but I know I would want someone there that wasn't big and scary in uniform.
All of this happened so fast and I am still amazed how calm I was in the situation and kept my wits about me. And I'm not putting this out there for any kind of "atta girl". It was just the right thing to do.
So what I really want to tell you is this:
If you see an accident, do whatever you can to help. If it's to just stop and check, or give a statement, fine. If it's to administer CPR (please have a certificate) or pull someone out of a burning car, do it. It doesn't matter who is at fault, just help.
Friday, November 21, 2014
Monday, November 3, 2014
40 Before 40 Update: Big Cats
When I made my For Before 40 List (still in process by the way), my bud gave me the suggestion to go pet some baby tigers. Whammo! It's on my list. Now, I'm taking artistic license to what she said and changing "tigers" to big cats. I gathered more information from her. It just so happened that Groupon offered a discount. Back that up a bit. The zoo (Garold Wayne Zoo), in conjunction with Groupon, offered a discount. One failed attempt and one successful attempt to purchase the necessary tickets later, we were ready to make plans for our visit.
We drove all the way to Oklahoma on a cold fall morning. We walked around the compound on our own for a while and fed the animals in the front that we had access to. Then we all gathered together for a group tour. We got to go to the back of the complex and interacted very closely with some of the animals. At the end of the tour, we got to snuggle and pet a couple of 5-week-old liligers. Yes, you Napoleon Dynamite fanatics, ligers are real. Liligers are products of male lions and female tigers.
The rest is photographic evidence.
We drove all the way to Oklahoma on a cold fall morning. We walked around the compound on our own for a while and fed the animals in the front that we had access to. Then we all gathered together for a group tour. We got to go to the back of the complex and interacted very closely with some of the animals. At the end of the tour, we got to snuggle and pet a couple of 5-week-old liligers. Yes, you Napoleon Dynamite fanatics, ligers are real. Liligers are products of male lions and female tigers.
The rest is photographic evidence.
Sunday, November 2, 2014
The Lost Art
Way before social media, way before the internet, people used to write letters. Actual pen to paper folded in an envelope and sent to people.
I was in middle school when I had my first official pen pal. Across the world. His name was Enrique and he lived in Spain. Then I had an Italian boy named Luca surprise me. After that I had my friend hook me up with a girl in Sweden. Oh, aren't you cute with your head in the gutter. Shut up, it was sweet. We lost touch after a while but I was hooked on letters from that point on. This may be where my mail obsession comes from. And by obsession, I mean it was my self-assigned duty to check the mail every day. When I started dating, I checked his family's mail. I was set on having my own PO box.
Once I started dating Ryan (hellooooooo internet!) I got in contact with a girl in Japan, Megumi. We wrote for quite some time! This was during my Asian interest era. And thus began my "dark years" as a letter-writing fiend. I built a pen pal database on (gasp!) Angelfire. I had upwards of 50 pen pals and more people with whom I was exchanging postcards. Oh and of course I have lost touch with these folks too. Except one. And somehow, along the way, I stumbled across friendship books.
Education!
A friendship book (FB to those of us in the biz) is a little handmade booklet of about 5 pages. Some of those little fuckers got artsy-fartsy with those things. Anyway, you put your address on it. It's yours. You also put your info in it like a tiny-assed bio and the type of friend you're looking for and weren't looking for *ahem*prisoners*ahem*. Excuse me there. Then you'd mail it off to one of your awesome pen pals, they'd add their info and pass it along. Wash-rinse-repeat. If there wasn't any space left, it made it's way back home if you were lucky. I have a few that have come back! And to make things more ridiculous, there were mutations of these things too. This shit was a hobby.
Welcome back to present day!
I'm not quite sure how Ivy picked up on it but she is about as obsessed as I am about the mail. It's almost a beat-down, drag-out, contest to see who gets to the mailbox first. Ha-HA! I have the upper hand. I'm still taller than her and can get the mail easier than she can. And she has started asking if she has any mail. So I threw out a plea on Facebook for my friends and family to send the kid some mail and it has been steadily trickling in. And look who is happy.
And see who is not... Because of Pinterest and Instagram, I am seeing all this cute mail that people are sending and getting and I'm pouting over here. I want that correspondence. I want to connect with people around the world the old fashioned way. Send me mail, damnit!
I was in middle school when I had my first official pen pal. Across the world. His name was Enrique and he lived in Spain. Then I had an Italian boy named Luca surprise me. After that I had my friend hook me up with a girl in Sweden. Oh, aren't you cute with your head in the gutter. Shut up, it was sweet. We lost touch after a while but I was hooked on letters from that point on. This may be where my mail obsession comes from. And by obsession, I mean it was my self-assigned duty to check the mail every day. When I started dating, I checked his family's mail. I was set on having my own PO box.
Once I started dating Ryan (hellooooooo internet!) I got in contact with a girl in Japan, Megumi. We wrote for quite some time! This was during my Asian interest era. And thus began my "dark years" as a letter-writing fiend. I built a pen pal database on (gasp!) Angelfire. I had upwards of 50 pen pals and more people with whom I was exchanging postcards. Oh and of course I have lost touch with these folks too. Except one. And somehow, along the way, I stumbled across friendship books.
Education!
A friendship book (FB to those of us in the biz) is a little handmade booklet of about 5 pages. Some of those little fuckers got artsy-fartsy with those things. Anyway, you put your address on it. It's yours. You also put your info in it like a tiny-assed bio and the type of friend you're looking for and weren't looking for *ahem*prisoners*ahem*. Excuse me there. Then you'd mail it off to one of your awesome pen pals, they'd add their info and pass it along. Wash-rinse-repeat. If there wasn't any space left, it made it's way back home if you were lucky. I have a few that have come back! And to make things more ridiculous, there were mutations of these things too. This shit was a hobby.
Welcome back to present day!
I'm not quite sure how Ivy picked up on it but she is about as obsessed as I am about the mail. It's almost a beat-down, drag-out, contest to see who gets to the mailbox first. Ha-HA! I have the upper hand. I'm still taller than her and can get the mail easier than she can. And she has started asking if she has any mail. So I threw out a plea on Facebook for my friends and family to send the kid some mail and it has been steadily trickling in. And look who is happy.
And see who is not... Because of Pinterest and Instagram, I am seeing all this cute mail that people are sending and getting and I'm pouting over here. I want that correspondence. I want to connect with people around the world the old fashioned way. Send me mail, damnit!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)