Accidents

I’ll be honest: It’s been almost 5 weeks since I’ve been back from my trip and the adjustment has been a bit rough.

I’ve been saying to friends, “I want to connect more with dark-skinned people. Marin is so white bread.”

I have missed being around so many dark-skinned people the way I was in India and Bali. It was so refreshing to be in different cultures with skin tones that were different than mine.

Two weeks after I got back I was in a car accident. I still don’t know what happened. I was peacefully driving along and then BAM! I hit another car.

It was completely my fault.

I got out of my SUV and approached the mini-van that I’d hit. A Hispanic guy got out and I noticed that I was hoping he didn’t have a green card so that my insurance wouldn’t have to be involved. I feel bad saying that but it is the truth. It’s what I was hoping for.

He had a green card as well as a valid driver’s license and insurance. He also had a lot of upset around my damaging his back bumper. He didn’t speak English so I could only pick up on his angry vibe.

Since he was so upset our language barrier probably made things much easier for both of us.

My SUV didn’t have much damage but it will cost over $4,000 to fix:

I haven’t been in an accident in over 12 years so I was a little shaken up.

The next day I picked up some gardeners in the Canal area and hired them to help me weed and plant my veggie garden.

When I drove them back home after our day of gardening I got into another car accident.

This time I was in my beloved VW:

I was trying to merge into another lane and BAM! I ran into the truck in front of me.

I couldn’t believe it.

The truck I hit pulled over as did I. A Hispanic guy got out.

Is this Groundhog day? I’ve hit two Hispanic guys in less than 24 hours. What are the odds of that?

This guy (fortunately) didn’t have a green card. He looked at the minor damage to the back of his truck and quickly got back in his truck and drove away without a word.

The gardeners stood beside me. All of us surveyed the damage to my VW. One of them winced and said, “Ow.”

“Yes, ow is right,” I replied.

I drove them home wondering if I should be driving at all. I also realized that I’d been saying that I wanted to connect with dark-skinned people.

So I need to rephrase that:

“Hey Universe! Just for the record: I don’t want to connect with dark-skinned people through hitting their cars! That is not the connection I’m talking about here. Let me clarify: I want to connect with dark-skinned people through chatting and laughing.”

I posted something on Facebook about how I’d had 2 accidents in less than 24 hours and I got lots of responses from friends saying that I ought to slow down.

But I had been going slow. In fact, I’ve been having a hard time adjusting to the fast pace in America. Still…maybe I need to slow down even more.

Sierra had a different opinion. “You are running into cars. Perhaps the message instead of slow down is ‘I don’t want to stop’.”

That felt very accurate.

I didn’t want to stop and feel how very much I was missing Bali.

I told my friend Cynthia about my car accidents and she said, “Be careful. Accidents often come in threes.”

So I was especially careful while driving.

After the 2 car accidents I began to tell friends, “I need to get very grounded here in Marin.”

And they agreed with me.

Last Saturday I went on a bike ride. I was riding down Wolfgrade. I braked as I was going down the steep hill.

I have no idea what happened but my brakes stopped DEAD and I went flying over my bike.

I’m lucky to have escaped with only a few minor scrapes because I hit the ground hard.

Not exactly the ‘grounding’ I was looking for…

(More scrapes are on my shoulder, hands and arms. I didn’t want to gross you guys out but I did want to give you a bit of visual.)

I am not usually accident-prone so I’m really hoping this accident phase of my life is over.

I will be getting money from my insurance for my SUV damage (which I won’t be fixing). I will use the money I get to pay for the VW damage.

The rest is going straight in my travel fund toward my next trip.

And perhaps a massage or two this month.

Tagged as: accidents after travel, culture shock America, culture shock Bali, culture shock India