Yesterday was a weird day. I took an early lunch and went shopping. I was thrilled to pieces when I found both a Kate Spade and a Louis Vuitton bag for $8 a piece. (The Goodwill near my work is amazing). I bought my mom a pair of BCBG Max Azria pants for $5, and I also got the entire Ramona Quimby book collection to read to Charky.

I left work at 3:34, a bit miffed that my mother had made me late leaving by calling me at 3:24PM. I was rushing - Z had to be at work at 5:30, and I wanted to see him before he left. I knew it would take around 70 minutes to get home, leaving me about 20 minutes to hang out with him.

As I am driving my last stretch home, on I-75 North, the rain starts coming down in huge droplets. At first, I didn't even need the wipers on, it was falling so slowly. I remember thinking how beautiful the big drops were on my windshield, and how bright the sky was, like a dream. As it started to come down heavier, I cranked the wipers all the way up - I knew it was a flash rainstorm and was really going to come down.

Then, as I was almost on the part of the highway that is a bridge over the Etowah River - only 1 mile from my exit on Main Street Cartersville - I saw this huge fog in front of me. It was incredibly condensed, and I couldn't see much. The next thing you know, I realized that the three cars 30-40 feet in front of me weren't moving. I slammed on the brakes and started fishtailing (70 mph). I remember thinking how I was scared I was of going off the bridge and into the river. I remember thinking how much like a rollercoaster it was, and how I really hate rollercoasters. The cars are coming closer, and it seemed like I was frozen in a dream. I could hear my brakes squeeling, and I could hear the crunch of cars hitting other cars behind me. Then I blacked out.

When I came to, I kept feeling cars hitting me in the backend. The car was spinning around on the middle of the highway, on the center of the bridge. My neck kept snapping forward and backward, forward and backward. Finally, it stopped. I shook like a leaf. I looked around outside (both passenger and drivers' windows were knocked out - one by my elbow and one by a truck) to see if it was all clear, or if cars were still smacking into eachother. I realized that it had all stopped, and that screams were coming from other cars outside. I tried opening my door, but it wouldn't budge.

Smoke started coming in at my face from the steering column. My eyes burned, and I coughed and gagged. I remember yelling to a man who was running outside - "Help me! My car is on fire!". He came running toward my car and tried to open the passenger door. It wouldn't budge. Finally, they told me to climb out of the window, and two men yanked me out. I remember freaking out because I didn't have any shoes on - they were still on my floorboard. I stood out on the highway, in the pouring rain, with glass all around me while in stocking feet. Finally, a nice man grabbed my shoes from inside the car, and shook the glass out and put them on me.

I stood against the guardrail, blood pouring from my lip, my forehead, and my arm, and bummed a smoke from a guy in the Civic that had hit behind me. Within a few minutes, the ambulances and State troopers were there, and I was off to the hospital.

All in all, 20 cars were involved in the pileup on I-75 North, just south of the Main Street exit. No one was severely hurt - just a lot of broken bones and cuts and scrapes. Incredibly lucky, considering the speeds and the conditions. I met a lot of people who I definitely felt more sorry for. The girl who hit me in the back turned 19 yesterday. How shitty is that, a huge car wreck on your birthday. The lady on the side of me, in a brand new Toyota Corolla, had not even made her first payment on her new car. She was heartbroken.

I'm fine. They ran tests on me until midnight. I have a bunch of painpills and muscle relaxers. The worst part is my arm and my neck. My arm has four or five big scrapes on it, and a bunch of red blotchy places where the blood has come up to the surface. I figure that I hit out the window with my elbow, and that is how it got all messed up. My neck is all bruised up, most likely from the airbag. Other than that, I just hurt. I feel like I was in a car wreck. My hips and back and shoulders and arms hurt. I feel the damage would have been worse if I had not blacked out right before I hit the cars in front of me. My anxiety was somewhat stilled by that. I didn't freak out afterwards, either. I didn't end up crying until much, much later in the hospital, when my mother held me in the examination room.

I never thought I was going to die. I remember thinking, "This is not happening." I keep remembering that sight - the cars stopped ahead of me in the fog, and my sinking realization that I am not going to be able to stop in time. Each time I think about it again I get nauseous.

I'm glad to be here. Amazing how life can change in an instant, and how some things you really have no control over. I don't think I could have done much for a better outcome. I am thrilled to pieces that no one was severely injured. I am impressed that my car held up as well as it did. I am impressed that I held up as well as I did, since my car looks so terrible.

I'll let you know my input about the whole thing soon. I think I need to go back to bed.