i fought the law and the law won... kinda

On Mother's Day, I got into my first car accident.

Okay, it was more like a pseudo-car accident because I didn't get in trouble. But it marked the middle of a Stressful Sunday. First of all, I was stressing out because it was Mother's Day and my mom was a little angry that I chose to go to one of my softball games all the way out in Kaneohe at 1045 when we had a brunch way back at Roy's in Hawaii Kai at 1215. I was also a bit grumpy because I was already missing the second game, and my coach was giving me a hard time about missing it because it was against one of our more competitive rivals. But I didn't want to miss both games, so being the diplomat I am, I made a compromise of going to the first game and then driving over to Roy;s, hopefully only missing 20 minutes or so of brunch. I am an optimist. After the first game, I was sweaty and gross but said a quick goodbye and good luck to my team mates, threw my stuff in my trunk and hightailed out of the parking lot. As I was driving on the Likelike, I could hear my mom's voice in my ear, "Drive Safely! Don't speed!" so I tried to heed her little voice in my head, and it sort of worked. Everything was going fine, I was going at a good pace without being "dangerous", and God knows that I didn't speed... that much. I ran into a little chunk of traffic but I was an uncharacteristically patient driver. When I entered Hawaii Kai it was about 1245. I thought to myself, "So I missed about a half an hour, but that's pretty good because I'm almost there. Plus, all we do is eat anyway. The main point is that I'm coming." The stoplight right before Hawaii Kai shopping center marked the beginning of the homestretch to the restaurant. It was stop and go traffic, so while we were stopped I decided to look in the mirror to check if I looked horrible (specfically looking for softball helmet hair, sweat and dirt on my face). It was an act of Narcissism that I won't even forget. I paid for this brief moment of vanity as out of the corner of my eye I saw movement in the car ahead. I thought this meant that we were going so I accelerated. And boom, I saw the man in front of me's outline jolt forward as I rear ended his Camry. It turns out that the driver was an old, little Japanese man with glasses in a faded green shirt. He reminded me of my grandpa, although he's Chinese and a head or more taller. His face got my scared. It was stern, like he was going to give me an earful and yell at me, probably calling me a girl with her head in the clouds, or some dumb girl who just wasn't paying attention... true descriptions. He walked over, surveyed the damage to his car and started to approach my window. Meanwhile, I was freaking out, the air filled with "OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT" and me trying to find my cell phone to call my mom. I knew that my mom would probably never let me drive for awhile and I would get an earful once we got home. The Roy's parking lot was right next to me, with Roy's in plain view. Oh, the irony. I decided that I had to just stay calm so as the man was next to my window I rolled it down and.... started apologizing profutely. "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry." "Why'd you do that?" demanded the little man, as if it were my choice to rear end him. I thought he meant more like, "what was I doing when this happened" so I said that I was looking for my cell phone and that I was on my way to a Mother's Day dinner. NOT entirely true, but more acceptable than "looking at myself in the mirror." He paused as if to process this info... stupid teenage girl... cellphone... but at last he responded with the beginnings of a smile and a glint in his eye. "What school do you go to?" I was not expecting this. What kind of question was this? Should I say Punahou? A lot of people would probably feel less sympathetic if I said Punahou but I decided to give it a shot. "Punahou," I meekly responded. He nodded and said, "Well, I'm alright." WHAT? No damage? I couldn't believe this. I walked outside to take a look at the damage with my own eyes. Not even a dent in both of our cars. A plastic part under the lights fell out but I easily popped it back in. "Wow," I said, in disbelief. "Yup, so just be more careful." The man walked back to his door. I couldn't stop apologizing. "Thank you thank you thank you. I'm sorry again!" He smiled at me and got back into his car, starting the ignition. "I love old people," I thought.
So I narrowly escaped what could've been really, really bad. I thought my Mom would give me a huge lecture but she was just as relieved that there was no damage done and laughed when I told her that all the man asked was what school i went to and what was i doing when i hit him. It was a lesson well-learned: don't take your eyes off the road. OBVIOUSLY!
But that night, I had a dream that I got multiple speeding tickets... try 5 on the same day. It was absurd. For some reason I had a pedal happy foot because as soon as one cop let me go, I would speed away, weaving in and out of cars. It was quite thrilling at the time... until I got pulled over not even 5 minutes later. I felt a surge of the feelings I experienced earlier that day when I was sitting in the car watching the man come out- anxiety, fear, regret, distress, panic. But thankfully, woke up right before it was time for Judgement with my parents.
I am never looking at myself in the mirror while behind the wheel again.