Morning Routine: Car Crash Edition

Skylar Shapiro
Oct 22, 2021
5 min read

Yup, you read that right. CAR CRASH EDITION.

SO I'm writing this the day after everything happened, but it might be all over the place because I was 1) sleep deprived and 2) running on adrenaline.

Lets start from the beginning-

It was a cold, rainy, fall morning in San Francisco, California. With work scheduled to start at 4 in the morning, I woke up to my lovely alarm at 2:40, to which I repeatedly pressed snooze until 3:10.

Feeling awake and ready to go, I jumped out of bed and fed my cat. I got dressed, and leisurely (adverb- Stephen King hates adverbs, he says they're lazy) ate an apple before I got my keys and headed down to my car around 3:45.

I pull my hood over my head because of the rainy weather, and I cross my arms to hold in the last remaining warmth of my body.

Finally, after a minute walk to my car, I hop in. I connect my phone and turn on Noah Kahans EP called something I cannot remember, and I put my car into drive.

I start to go, and everything is normal. This is until I get to one of the few stop lights on the way to work. The light turns green, and as I'm turning left the rain causes my tires to skid from under me. I am in no stress though, because I genuinely did not let it affect me. Then, in reaction to this sudden loss of traction, I turn my wheel to the left. And by turn, I mean I jerk my wheel to the left.

Silly silly Skylar.

As I jerk the wheel, my car accelerates and proceeds to go OVER the curb that separates the muni train to the cars, which then leaves me skirting in the middle of an (empty) road. My car starts to cream "hazard hazard" and probably would've cursed me out if it could speak, and so I pull it over to the side. Immediately, I knew something was wrong.

As I try to turn right, my tires go straight. So even if I pull my steering wheel all the way to the right, at best it would go diagonal.

Oops. (Oh god, I feel like this is going to be a long story. I'm so sorry).

So obviously, I'm a little stressed, but thanks to lack of sleep, I really do not feel any sort of worry. If anything, I feel more awake. I instantly realize I shouldn't be sitting on this road, so I pull my car over to the street next to this one, which is a residential. I park my car, and immediately realize I have work in 5 minutes.

What do I do?

I RUN to my work (LMAO). I can't be late. I talk to my coworkers, they ask me if I have AAA (which I do), and I tell my manager everything that happened. I even told her I just had to fix this and then I would be BACK to work (that did not happen). She is super understanding as she is listening to a 19 year old cry about her own mistake, and lets me leave to call a tow truck.

Lets speed this up a little;

I call AAA, they send a tow truck. While I'm waiting, I make a Tik Tok of me crying (of course I did). They pick me up, tow my car and myself to my home (Tell me why they asked if I would need a ride in the tow truck or if I would be following them? Was I supposed to run behind them like Edward in Twilight? In the rain? I don't have another car in my back pocket, AAA) and then I go back upstairs to cry and sleep until any car shop opens (because mind you- this is happening at 4 IN THE MORNING).

I talk to my mom, she's chill with it. Glad I wasn't hurt. At 10, I wake up to my mom calling. I then call ANOTHER tow truck to take me and my car to an auto shop. This auto shop is in Daly City, so the city next to San Francisco, and they drop me off there with a nice "good luck." (The guy was sweet, he expressed his excitement for his weekends off).

I go inside the auto shop and I have to fill out paper work, and then the guy at the front desk goes "Do you have a claim number?" Also, I've never been in an accident before, so when he asked me this I straight up went "what is that?"

Turns out I had to call AAA AGAIN to tell them everything that happened so that they can send money over and figure out insurance stuff and deductibles and other adult stuff. This is taking forever any this point. At one point, they even said that I didn't have auto insurance, which is when I girl-bossed it and said "Yes I do, you need to check again." Obviously, I was right, but whatever.

They take in my car, and everything is figured out. Oh wait, its NOT, because now I have no mode of transportation in the city where I live. The insurance company said I could do a rental car because my car is "undriveable," but when I asked for one they said I would be put on the waitlist until Monday (It was Thursday), so eff that.

With my mom on the phone, we decide that I can take BART from Daly City to my hometown, where my Mom can pick me up and I could take one of her cars for the time being. If you don't know what BART is for my non-bay area readers, its the Bay Area Rapid Transit, which is pretty much a train that has stops around the Bay Area. Luckily, I've been taking BART since I was super young because my mom and I always used to go to the city for plays and the piers and whatnot.

Oh also, the closest BART station is about a mile and a half away, AND I'm too scared to Uber or call a friend because they all have school or work, so I walk.

Honestly, walking in Daly City while it's raining was pretty fun. I got a Starbucks because I deserved it ("I deserve a Starbucks because I got into a crash," was on repeat in my head while walking up to the cashier).

Then yeah, from there the story starts to slow down. I got onto my train very easily, I sat for an hour until I got to my stop, my mom picked me up and took me to Panera because I was crying, I had really good tasting soup but I don't like the consistency of soup so it wasn't the best (damn gluten free life), and then I took my moms car home where I watched YouTube and did a Zumba class that night.

Now, I've gotten many comments saying "Wow what a rough day," but in all honestly, I kinda loved it. That might sound wrong because 1) my car is in the shop and I will have to pay for the repairs and 2) girl what, but I learned SO much yesterday.

I learned how to call AAA,

I learned how to get places without a car,

I learned how to sign papers and explain my situation,

I learned what a claim number was,

I learned how to stand up for myself when I knew I was right,

I learned how to not let anxiety and stress overwhelm me,

I learned how to make the most out of the situation,

and I feel like I learned how to be a reliable adult.

And that's pretty fucking awesome.

So yeah it wasn't the best day. But it was a day to remember. It's all about the experiences. I live for experiences.

Don't drive at 4 a.m in the rain,

Love,