Mostly, that was just too depressing to leave up
while I was away. In four short hours, I will be
getting up to go to Mexico for the week. I have
no idea what to expect, but I am bringing six
books, so whatever my expectations are, they are
clearly unrealistic. The water temperature is
supposedly 72 degrees, so I expect to have no
complaints. Mostly I am just hoping to avoid
extreme sunburn. But it should be a great week,
and I am totally looking forward to going home
and packing and leaving and not being at work
for a week. Anyway, more soon. Hope it's a good
week here in Seattle, too. Though very cold and
rainy. I hope it is freezing rain all week long
here. --- Why am I not in bed with only four
hours to go until I have to get up? (And only
three, now that it is 1:30am.) Because I had CC
on my regular Sunday night shift. I had not paid
much attention to when my flight was leaving,
and even after I realized the ungodly early
hour, I never made the connection with getting
up early on Monday morning and having to do a
9pm-1am Crisis Clinic shift Sunday night. Yeah,
I am a quick one. No mistake. They tried to let
me go a half hour early, but just as I was
leaving ? I had my coat on, I was at the
computer logging myself out, putting a few extra
pieces of candy in my pocket for the next day ?
my phone rang! I had forgotten to log it off! No
one to blame but myself. The rookiest mistake in
the book, and I make it the one night I would
have most profited from getting out early. And
then, as I was driving home, I came within three
feet of getting in a very bad accident! I was
going through an intersection, about to get on
the freeway, when suddenly an ambulance comes
tearing across, right through his red light,
with his emergency lights flashing, and his
siren going. Though I believe he only turned on
his siren as he entered the intersection,
because I sure as heck didn?t hear him before he
was right in front of me. And the geography

(topography?) of the intersection was such that
I would not have been able to see him, either,
until the very last second. Without even time to
think, I slam on my brakes as hard as I can, and
the car skids a bit and the antilock brakes kick
in, and the ambulance blasts across the front of
my car, barely missing me. And then it is over.
I move from break to accelerator and pick up the
lost speed and get on the freeway. It was
absolutely nuts. Just Friday there was another
sticky moment on the way back from the Eastside,
and someone in the car commented how ironic it
would be if I got in an accident right before my
trip and so would be unable to go to Mexico. And
then here we were again, three and a half hours
before going to the airport, and I almost got in
what would certainly have been a very, very
nasty accident. Whose insurance even pays for an
accident with an ambulance? Presumably they have
some sort of exemption from traffic laws, but it
certainly would in no way have been my fault for
hitting them. And what about the person they
were on their way to pick up (God forbid that
there would have been someone on a gurney in the
back. He would have been a goner for sure)? Do
they call for two more ambulances ? one for the
person they were supposed to go get and one more
for themselves? One or two ambulance accidents
and the city?s supply would get consumed pretty
quickly. But I got lucky. And the adrenaline
wore off. And I am home now, and packed, and
going to go get a couple of hours? sleep. See
you next week!