Weddingbee Blog

I’m fine.

This is how my sister and I have learned to start conversations on the phone with our mom that might otherwise cause her to freak out and book emergency plane tickets across the country. We’ve both learned this from experience - me, from the time I called her in college, sobbing and incoherent after taking my friend to the hospital, and all I could get out was, “I’m at the hospital.” Let’s just say panic ensued until she realized I personally was not injured or in danger. From then on, I have been instructed to always start a conversation where I am not in danger, but could sound like it, with “I’m fine.”

Earlier this week, I drove to work(/school - same thing for me) at about the same time I usually do, the same route I always take. I was 30 seconds from the parking garage, and needed to make one last left turn from a one-way street to be on the garage street. The left hand turn lane was open in front of me, I flipped on my signal. As I approached the light turned green, so I started to turn.

Then I noticed that the school bus that was in the middle lane (to my right, with no turn signal on) had also decided to turn left. At that moment all I thought was, ‘You have got to be kidding me.’

(Lumbering school bus vs. my regular old car (not my actual car, but the same make/model))

The bus cut the corner and crunched into my car, shoving it into the curb on the left, then proceeded to scrape along the entirety of the side of the bus, pulling my fender out, the right lower grill off, and crushing some stuff on the front right of the car.

The crunching noise was by far the worst part of the whole thing, and I just kept thinking, ‘Seriously?! I’m supposed to be getting married soon, and I’m going to be crushed by a school bus?! THIS is how things end?! No. I don’t think so.’ Obviously I am completely fine and overall damage wasn’t that bad, it really was just the sound that was terrible (metal on metal is not pleasant!), but I’m a little embarrassed to admit that it was the, ‘I’m supposed to get married soon!’ part that kept running through my head.

It feels silly to say this out loud (/write it down), but lately I had been making a conscious effort to be more ’safe’. I’ve stopped riding my motorcycle for now:

(me on my beloved motorcycle, last year)

I’ve stopped doing my usual 5 mph (at least) over the speed limit, I’ve tried to stop checking my phone while at stoplights (old habits die hard), and I’m more careful in lab and at home around sharp objects like razor blades and knives.

I do this because I am accident-prone, and I’d rather not hobble down the aisle or have some horrible gash across my arms. Miss Fro Yo mentioned this same idea just before her wedding too, so I must not be the only one who’s worried about this, right?! But despite my best efforts to maintain an accident-free life, it seems that accidents are just drawn to me. I’ve decided to take it as an early ’here’s what goes wrong’ event. We are now one car short, which will soon cause trouble when my family comes into town, but if this is the worst that happens, I will consider myself lucky!

It’s also made me realize that maaaaybe I should just be taking these normal precautions in day-to-day life anyway, you know? I realize that getting married is a special time and the wedding’s this ’day’ that’s taken over my current life, but… don’t I want to be able to enjoy the marriage after that day, too? Shouldn’t I do my best to stay healthy and alive the rest of the time, too? What are reasonable risks to take? Do I sell my motorcycle? Do I stop eating everything that’s bad for me and probably clogging my arteries (OK I probably should do that)? It’s gotten me thinking!

Have you made any safety-related changes because of your upcoming wedding? Has your wedding made you realize you should make some changes in your life?