Fender Bender

It was an exciting day. I had a job interview this morning and a fender bender this afternoon. Since I don't have much to share regarding the interview (I won't know anything for maybe a couple of weeks), I'll tell you about the fender bender.

Hannah and I were out together. We're trying to tie up loose ends on our holiday gift giving, so although I am not a big Walmart fan, we went in for a few items, nothing grand and glorious. We hopped back into the van and I glanced into my rear view mirror before backing slowly out of my spot. I let some pedestrians pass and a car that was headed down the aisle. I had my eye on the back corner of the car parked to my right when my van stopped rather abruptly. Another check of my rear view mirror told me I made contact with another car. (Oh, blah..)

I pulled back forward and opened my door to a man across the aisle in the same position. "What are you doing backing up when I'm backing up?" the other driver asked me, to which I replied, "Why didn't you beep?" (Had I known he was there I surely would have stopped before crumpling our bumpers.)

"I didn't see you!" the guy in the other car said. I felt a sense of relief wash over me as I realized nether of us had been paying attention to who or what was behind us at that particular moment. We had almost identical damage to our vehicles, a dent in the rear driver's side bumper. Since we were turning opposite directions, we were probably the same distance out into the aisle. The dent in my bumper is decidedly worse than the one on his car, or should I say "his wife's"?

I felt a little bad for him. His wife, who was on her way out of the store, was not happy at all. She took pictures of my van with her cell phone, proceeded to call the police, and then complain about how she "didn't have time for this." We'd already traded insurance information and such by the time the sheriff, who really didn't need to be summoned at all, showed up and told us a police report wasn't necessary. (I'd said that earlier but she insisted she wanted the police.)

So, now I will be calling our insurance agency on Monday morning. I can hardly stand all the excitement.