Grumble grumble grumble

I'm writing this post from Wrightsville Beach, NC; I'm away from home for a few days attending the Clinical Social Work Institute conference, put on every year by NASW-NC. There are 2 required sessions and 9 others where you could make a choice. I selected several veteran-related topic (Assisting Veterans with Post-Deployment Transitions, Caring for Veterans in the VA System, Military PTSD Explained and Psycho-social Rehabilitation with Veterans) to increase my general, ah, fund of knowledge on the subject. My Dad is a Vietnam vet and while I haven't worked in a program specifically for veterans, I'm surprised it hasn't really come up too much in my work (at least not as a primary, secondary, or even tertiary issue) already. Yes, I like using the word tertiary. I have taken a lot of notes so far; I may even post them on the other blog (I keep telling you, it is boring).


On the plus side, I was reminded there's a town in SC named Joanna, and I was pleasantly reminded of how cheap gas is there. This is neither plus nor minus, just observation, but when you drive 362 miles in an afternoon, you can listen to that Bruno Mars song about 512 times on 41 different radio stations.

I'm sorry but the rest is going to be Joanna complaining about the chain of events that's occurred over the last few days. I'm telling you, it's boring. Feel free to skip it, but I feel the need to record it.

• I have misplaced my wedding ring. I'm sure it's only misplaced, not lost. Because Matt lost his about 8 years ago (home repair ministry + roofing tar) and I still have my original, so I have the upper hand and I am not going to lose that, so it is only misplaced. I'm pretty sure. 
• I dropped one of the last pair of contacts lens I have in the floor, right where the exterminator had just sprayed.  
• I forgot the cake pops I was bringing for my hosts; fortunately this was just a minute or so after I left the house and this was quickly corrected.

(Sunday at lunch Matt asked Simon, "What are we going to do while Mom's away?" Simon immediately responded, "Stay home, watch TV, play video games, and eat cake pops." ... Well, I do love a man with a plan).

• It rained for the first five hours of what was supposed to be a 6.5 hour drive. I mean, FIVE HOURS, a lot of it heavy.
• There was an accident, I guess, right outside Columbia SC that backed up traffic for an hour. This was one of the hours it was raining. When we finally got up to where I suppose the wreck was, you could see a lot of torn-up mud in the median, so maybe the person ran off the road and over-corrected 5 or 6 times, but all the vehicles and emergency folks were gone. I was slightly disappointed by this; for that amount of time I fully expect to see that a person has been cut in half, or at least that there are a couple of flipped-over cars on fire, something. 
• What was supposed to be a 6.5 hour drive ended up taking about 8 hours. Thank goodness the kids are at home with Matt and Grandma; if I'd had to listen to Simon complaining that whole time I'd have gone crazy.
• Then when I am closing in on Wilmington, finally ... there is this stretch of Interstate 74 that is totally dark and deserted for a long time. You really hope you don't need help or anything because you get the feeling no one would be able to find you. 
• On that note, I was going way too fast in a construction zone (it's nighttime, not putting any workers in danger). Suddenly this thing flies up in the air from the car in front of me, I'm going too fast to do anything and anyway, I figure it's a trash bag or something, because that's what it always turns out to be. Right before it hit the car I realized it was most certainly NOT a trash bag; it was something really solid. Maybe a suitcase? I thought it fell off the car in front, but then I decided they probably just hit it too; thank heavens when it hit the car it bounced off to the side and not into my windshield. As it is ...

Boy I really do not wish to spend any more money on this car; I would have thought it impossible to further lower the trade-in value (the peeling topcoat in the photos has been happening for about 6 months, there are multiple other small-ish issues). Note to self: even if you still have one functioning headlight, if the one on the left is out and you are trying to read street signs on the left side of the street, it's difficult. I finally got to survey the damage; I knew the light was out and figured there might be a dent, but this was way worse than I'd thought. 

I have a different perspective on car-crash kinds of things, due to the previously-described MVA in high school when I sustained a TBI, multiple internal injuries, multiple broken bones, 7 pint blood transfusion, etc. To me, you don't get to call it a "car accident" unless someone ends up at the hospital, or at least gets attended to by an EMT or something. Everything else is a fender bender. This was a moment of scariness and I'm kind of amazed at the damage, but it's all ... fine. :)